Moises Paniagua Scout Report

 

Date of birth: 16 August 2007

Country: Bolivia

Position: RW

Height: 169 cm

Preferred foot: Right

Club: Always Ready

When we think of South American football talent our minds tend to instantly drift toward Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Uruguay and in recent years both Chile and Ecuador. Yet we almost always miss out on the Bolivian side. But with Moises Paniagua making a name for himself, that could all be a thing of the past.

Listed as a right winger, Paniagua is currently active in the Always Ready under 19's setup, although he has made 19 appearances in the first league as well as 4 Conmebol Sudamericana competition which shows you just how highly valued he is by the club. Aged 15 on his debut with the first team he even managed to score. Also with his goal against Sporting Cristal of Peru, he became the second youngest player to score at the Copa Libertadores.

Watching him play it is clear he is actually more suited in a traditional CAM role rather than a winger. His biggest skills are his ball control and dribbling, often his bread and butter in terms of his style of play. A young player with a traditional mindset: Run at your opponent and his enhanced technical ability makes it almost easy for him to blow by his defender. He also possesses some great pace allowing him to simply outpace his opponent. Starting out as a futsal player certainly gives him the edge in terms of technical ability compared to his peers.

His off ball movement is also very good especially for his age. Willing to cut across his defender to run onto the pass, his pace and close control could really be exploited in this situation and I would not be surprised to see him become a 15+ goal scorer in the future, especially if he were to move to an attacking side. 

One of the faults I would like to see being addressed for Moises is his final ball. A lot of his good work, whether that is beating his man or running onto a through ball often results in a missed potential chance rather than a goal due to the final pass. Watching Moises play you can see his is not a selfish player, in fact it is the opposite, often looking to cut the ball back to his team mates but the final pass often lacks pace and accuracy. At 17 this is obviously not a huge issue and I expect it to be ironed out over time, but I would still like to see a coach work on this side to his game as I feel it would turn Moises into a really dangerous attacking player.

Ideal Club:

I think the right move is to stay at Always Ready currently to keep getting game time, especially with the side featuring in continental cups. After that I see three potential moves. One of these staying in South America and moving to either Brazil or Argentina to further develop, the second being a move to The United States and follow the pathway of South American players moving to the MLS to develop both on the pitch and off with learning English before moving to Europe in their early 20's. Or a move to Ajax who ar eof course known for developing young players, playing attacking football and selling on to bigger clubs.