Jewel liberators: Palmeiras and Del Valle make fortunes with the base and reveal talented generations | palm trees

With offspring from the academy, Palmeiras inaugurates the base’s new facilities

Palmeiras and Independiente del Valle face each other this Wednesday, at 9:30 pm (Brasília time), in Quito, Ecuador, with one thing in common: success and investment in their youth categories.

The game scheduled for the Banco Guayaquil stadium will be broadcast by TV Globo (for SP, MS and MT) and ge in real time with exclusive videos.

Opponents in the third round of the Conmebol Libertadores group stage, the two teams made recent fortunes with the sales of their main jewels: Endrick, 17 years old, to Real Madrid, from Spain, and Kendry Paéz, 16, to Chelsea, from England.

The two will appear on future teams when they turn 18; In Endrick’s case, this will happen in July, while the Ecuadorian attacking midfielder will go to England in 2025.

Paéz’s sale price was not announced, but it is estimated that Chelsea paid around 20 million euros (R$109 million) to take the attacking midfielder who has 10 games, two goals and one assist this season for Del Valley. Just like Endrick in Brazil, he has already been called up by Ecuador’s senior team.

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The two young players should start tonight’s match, which marks the meeting of the leaders of Group F of the Libertadores, with four points each. But both generations have promising names on the bench, too.

Just as Abel Ferreira has given more minutes to Luis Guilherme (17 years old) and Estêvão (16), who together with Endrick lead the so-called “R$ 1 billion generation” at Palmeiras’ academy, coach Javier Gandolfi also has new stars emerging in Del Valle, in Keny Arroyo (18 years old) and Yaimar Medina (19).

Luis has already played ten games this year for Verdão, four as a starter, while Estêvão played nine times (twice from the start) – the number 41 scored a goal and provided an assist.

The two are also monitored by the European market, but Palmeiras has not yet had offers to finalize the deal. Luis Guilherme has a fine of 55 million euros (301 million) and Estêvão, 45 million euros (R$247 million). The club has 80% and 70% of their economic rights, respectively.

– We have to sell, there is no other way. I really wish the president wouldn’t sell Endrick, but there’s no way. Sharks come from Europe with euros, how can we not sell? It’s almost impossible, you have to sell it – reflected Abel Ferreira.

– I understand that our young people are a little anxious now because they all want to be Endrick and I’m always talking about God’s timing, and it’s not the same for everyone. Endrick is gone now, Estêvão is probably going to be now, Luis will be. But we have to help them, let’s have this patience, because Palmeiras has this patience.

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At Del Valle, Arroyo and Medina are also in the process of growing in the professional squad. The first is a striker, played in the under-17 World Cup for the Ecuadorian team and is already in a more advanced process compared to the second, a midfielder and part of the under-20 team in the Pre-Olympic.

In 2015, Palmeiras began a profound process of reformulating its youth department, which historically had not been prominent. With investments and captained by João Paulo Sampaio, the club now has one of the main training centers in Brazilian football.

According to the financial statement, Palmeiras invested R$31.8 million in training athletes last year. The club still has a project to set up accommodation for the boys, this one closer to the Football Academy and Allianz Parque.

The amount invested in the decade has been transformed not only into sales, but into results on the field. Since 2020, the year in which the Abel Ferreira era began, 33 players have been released from the Alviverde base.

Del Valle mines throughout Ecuador and raises young people for the world. And, like Palmeiras, it reveals new names and raises millions to keep this successful structure running.

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