A day after reliable reports of Liverpool’s interest in Ecuadorian centre-back Deinner Ordonez, Chelsea have agreed a pre-contract deal to sign the teenage talent.The Mail‘s Lewis Steele reported on Thursday that Liverpool were scouting Independiente Del Valle youngster Ordonez.Described as “the best player of his age group in the whole of South America,” links with the 16-year-old first emerged in February when he was representing Ecuador at the U20 Copa Sudamericana.But while Liverpool may have hoped to secure an early deal for Ordonez – who cannot move to the UK until January 2028 when he is 18 – those hopes have now been dashed.Chelsea agree deal for Deinner Ordonez It has now been widely reported that Ordonez will instead join Chelsea, with transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano writing on X that the agreement was reached on Friday.The youngster will stay with Independiente Del Valle for the next two years before officially moving to Stamford Bridge at the start of 2028.This is due to post-Brexit rules prohibiting signings under the age of 18 from outside of the UK, though Chelsea‘s agreement is within the confines of the law.Ordonez is set to follow Kendry Paez, who made the same move in the summer transfer window before being farmed out on loan to sister-club Strasbourg.Who Liverpool could target next: 8 centre-backs linkedClearly any deal for Ordonez would have been supplementary rather than part of Liverpool’s immediate first-team plans, with the Premier League champions still expected to sign at least one new centre-back.At senior level the priority target is Crystal Palace‘s Marc Guehi, who was poised to join on deadline day only for the London club to pull out of negotiations.Guehi will be a free agent at the end of the season and is still touted with a move to Anfield, but Liverpool are also linked with a number of other central defenders.Those include Ordonez’s countryman and namesake, Club Brugge’s Joel Ordonez, along with Dortmund’s Nico Schlotterbeck, Bayern Munich‘s Dayot Upamecano, Wolfsburg’s Konstantinos Koulierakis and Sporting CP duo Ousmane Diomande and Zeno Debast.Interestingly, Steele also noted mention of Inter Milan’s Alessandro Bastoni, who could be lined up as a world-class replacement for Virgil van Dijk.Liverpool will continue to scour the market for opportunity to sign the best young talents, too, and they are already believed to have lined up a deal for winger Sidy Barhama Ndiaye, 15, from Senegalese club Diambars FC.Ndiaye is not set to turn 18 until December 2027, meaning any move to the Premier League would take place in 2028.