by @FM_Stag
While Venezuela has had its footballing icons over the years (think Juan Arango, Tomás Rincón or Salomón Rondón, the latter’s Everton experience notwithstanding), baseball is the primary sport of choice for most young athletes in the country, often diverting promising talent away from football. Yet it still feels like a surprising fact that Venezuela are the only CONMEBOL nation never to have qualified for a FIFA World Cup finals since the competition’s inception in 1930.
That said, we all know South America is a permanent hotbed for exciting young talent, and Venezuela has its fair share indeed.
Wuilker Faríñez is a talented goalkeeper still in his mid 20’s who burst onto the radar of many top European clubs in real life before his 2020 move to RC Lens in France, where he has settled into looking like a more than capable stopper. Yeferson Soteldo is another mercurial talent who seemed destined for the very top, but returned to Santos in Brazil for a second spell in 2022 after moves to Toronto and Tigres failed to bear much fruit.
Deportivo Táchira’s Yerson Chacón bears more than a passing footballing resemblance to Soteldo. At only five foot five inches tall, Chacón is a diminutive yet energetic creative attacker who loves to drive at defenders and take them on.
Making his club debut at just 16 and bagging two goals in only nine appearances, it’s fair to say that hype around Chacón has been growing for a while particularly after he bagged 6 goals and 6 assists in his first full season at the club as a 17-year-old.
Now only 19, already capped for his country and rumoured to be attracting attention from various English Premier League clubs, the predominantly right-sided tricky winger seems destined for a bright future.
As happy as he is dribbling around and through players out on the touchline, Yerson Chacón is equally adept at cutting inside towards the traditional number 10 position, where his confidence on the ball and determined approach allows him to battle impressively against much bigger and more experienced defenders.
In Football Manager 2023, Chacón starts with the natural versatility to already be comfortable playing on either flank, either across the halfway line or more advanced in the AMR/AML slots. We see many South American talents with great dribbling and technique for a teenager, but Chacón’s raw skills are complemented by excellent starting Agility and Balance attributes of 15.
Combined with his dimensions and decent speed, it’s fair to say Yerson Ronaldo Chacón (his actual middle name) has all the right elements to be a traditional flair player in a side who have the luxury to carry a usually enigmatic talent of this nature. Where this young Venezuelan stands out however, is how his Work Rate (13), Aggression (13) and Teamwork (15) speak to his full-blooded and committed approach to the game as the rest of his profile does to his natural flair and technical gifts.
In my current Sampdoria save, I picked Yerson Chacón up in July 2024 for just £425k. I wish I had discovered him earlier, as I dare say he could’ve been an even bigger bargain for my side. He has the ability even at the very beginning of the game to immediately contribute effectively to a top tier side in Europe. I’m in 2027 now and the young Venezuelan has played 120 times for Sampdoria. Never once have I encountered any attitude challenges with his application or training performances, and he is a key part of my side.
Earlier in the cycle I wrote an article titled ‘What Does Good Look Like in FM23?’ which explored which metrics are actually impressive for players in each position. Numbers only really add value when they have context.
With that in mind, Yerson Chacón averaged 2.98 successful dribbles per 90 (on the very edge of High), 15.76 sprints per 90 (very High) and 0.21 expected assists per 90 (extremely High). If you haven’t checked out the article, the Low, Medium and High are benchmarks based on the performances of the elite players of European football, comparing statistical outputs to players in the top five European leagues – England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
His key attributes have developed nicely and at only 24, he still has scope for further improvement.
Yerson Chacón may not be the first South American prospect you think of in 2023, nestled away in Venezuela, but I believe at the very least he’ll match countryman Yeferson Soteldo’s status in global football and may even have the ceiling to go further. In FM23, you can make that happen.
What are you waiting for? Go and sign him up!
Thanks for reading.
Check out FM Stag’s excellent Football Manager content over at FMStag.com where you can find all of his Football Manager save adventures (including his excellent FM23 save at Sampdoria), as well as a host of useful tips, guides and tools from one of the best in the business 👌.
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