"The best footballers come from humble backgrounds," Marcos Caicedo told Ecuadorean outlet Primicias last week. He wasn't just talking philosophy — he was describing his brother Moises's entire life, and explaining why the Chelsea midfielder has built 38 football academies across a country where criminal gangs routinely recruit children out of sheer desperation.
The Nino Moi 23 project, named after Caicedo and his squad number, currently trains over 1,500 children aged five to sixteen. The academies stretch from Quito's southern neighbourhoods — places with a well-documented gang presence — all the way to the Galapagos Islands. That's not charity branding. That's a serious infrastructure project.
Where the academies fit in Ecuador's bigger picture
The Ecuadorean government has formally acknowledged the problem these schools are pushing back against: extreme poverty, limited education access, and geographical isolation leaving children vulnerable to gang recruitment. Caicedo knows it intimately. He grew up on a dirt pitch in Santo Domingo, faced genuine financial hardship as a kid, and struggled to access proper football training himself.
That backstory matters when you consider what the academies are actually offering — not just coaching, but an alternative structure entirely. "Moises's wish is for the children to have the opportunity to play football, to see sport as a profession, a way of life for them and their families," said Galo Rodriguez, the academies' sporting director.
Caicedo also has longer-term ambitions: establishing his own football club, with the academies feeding talent up through the pyramid. For Ecuador's national team depth over the next decade, that pipeline could matter more than anyone currently appreciates.
Ecuador head to the World Cup with Caicedo at the centre
The timing of all this gives it extra weight. Caicedo is about to play his second World Cup, and Ecuador's group — Ivory Coast on June 14 in Philadelphia, Curacao on June 20 in Kansas City, Germany on June 25 in New Jersey — is winnable enough to spark genuine optimism back home. Ecuador making the knockout stages would send those 1,500 kids into a frenzy. The odds on Ecuador progressing from Group E are worth a look given the relatively accessible draw.
"All the kids dream of being on a professional team, then they dream of going abroad and becoming an international role model and obviously, with a World Cup, that's the icing on the cake," Rodriguez said. "Hopefully, many more will come out of here."
Caicedo started on a dirt pitch in Santo Domingo. Some of these kids are starting on proper grass, with qualified coaches, in a structured environment — because of him. The gap between where he began and where he is now just got a little narrower for the next generation.
