Arsenal to sign 16-year-old Ecuadorian twins

Edwin and Holger Quintero, twins from Ecuador, will be signed for the Gunners when they turn 18 years old.

They are scheduled to officially announce the move this week in London, and they are expected to sign five-year contracts starting in 2027.

Local media has described right-sided winger Edwin as Neymar, with Holger, an attacking midfielder, being compared to Thiago Alcantara from former Liverpool and Barcelona.

According to reports, the players’ fees could reach $ 9 million with reports that they will join from the Ecuadorian Serie A club Independiente Del Valle.

Chelsea’s £100m midfielder Moises Caicedo and Kendry Paez are also players who have a track record of producing talent, with Piero Hincapie from Arsenal on loan from Bayer Leverkusen having the option to make the deal permanent.

This deal, which has been in development for more than a year, is the most recent step in Arsenal’s strategy change as they look to sign some of the world’s best young players.

The brothers are likely to enroll in the club’s academy, but if they have already developed enough to make the senior squad by their 2027 arrival, they will be moved on.

The arrival of goalkeeper Tommy Setford from Ajax was the first signing that Arsenal made in this area, which sparked a change in youth recruitment.

Setford was always intended to join the first-team squad, and Mikel Arteta is the England youth international who would make his third-choice goalkeeper debut, so that deal was slightly different from the Quintero twins’.

Victor Ozhianvuna, 16, was signed by Arsenal for Shamrock Rovers for a fee that was also confirmed in October.

The Republic of Ireland Under-17 international has already played first-team football and will also join the team when he turns 18 in January 2027.

When Shamrock came on as a substitute for Ozhianvuna against Molde, he became the second-youngest player to feature in the Uefa Conference League.

Arteta has previously mentioned how internal discussions about Arsenal joining a multi-club system have taken place.

Premier League clubs that want to sign players from EU nations must first obtain a Governing Body Endorsement (GBE), which is required for all other foreign players who are not permitted to work in the UK.

The senior and talented young players are awarded points based on their senior and youth international appearances, their level of success, their league standing, their league position and progress in continental competition, and their club appearances, based on domestic league and continental competition minutes.

Additionally, there are limitations on how many under-21 players a club can sign in a single window.

In the Premier League, a club can sign six under-21 players per season and only three in the January transfer window.