The South American media have delivered a realistic verdict on Kendry Paez’s first minutes for River Plate after joining on loan from Chelsea.
Kendry Paez joined Chelsea with plenty of hype behind him after showing plenty of promise over in South America, but things haven’t gone to plan in Europe so far.
Strasbourg hosted Paez for the first half of the season on loan. But the teenager struggled to balance his personal and football life, which resulted in off-field problems for Paez.
Chelsea ended up agreeing to terminate his loan deal early, and then went and sent him back to familiar surroundings in South America with River Plate.
And in the early hours of this morning, Kendry Paez made his debut.
Starting to think Jamie Carragher has a point…😬
Jamie Carragher on Liam Delap
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
Paez was substituted on for the last 20 minutes of the game with River Plate trailing to Argentinos Juniors, but he was unable to have much of an impact.
La Pagina Millonaria had this to say about his short debut.
‘He made his debut in the midst of a very unfavorable context. He touched only five balls, three of them ended up in the opponent. Impossible to analyze, it would be unfair.’
Elsewhere, the Ecuadorian site, Órbita Deportiva, defended his performance.
‘Unfortunately, Paez entered at a complicated moment, with River without ideas and appealing mainly to the ball. In addition, his team ended up playing with ten men due to Portillo’s injury.
‘The Ecuadorian midfielder contributed little in the minutes he was on the field, so he had a bittersweet debut with the River shirt.
‘Gallardo’s original plan was to make Páez debut in the duel for the 32nd finals of the Copa Argentina, but he finally called him up for today’s match, where our compatriot was able to add his first minutes in Argentine football.’
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