Cordero joins the Chiefs
By Mark Stevens
10/7/20
Facundo Cordero is ready to hot-step his way into Sandy Park, just like older brother Santi did back in 2018, after he today agreed to join Gallagher Premiership leaders Exeter Chiefs.
On Thursday, Chiefs’ Director of Rugby, Rob Baxter, teased the rugby fraternity when he said following the arrival of fellow newcomer, Jack Walsh, the following: “Jack isn’t the only newcomer coming in. Interestingly, we have another name who we will be announcing in a week or two’s time whose name will have everyone licking their lips.”
With speculation rife overnight, Baxter has today confirmed that the 21-year-old back will be arriving in Devon shortly.
“We’ve signed a young man by the name of Cordero – Facundo Cordero,” said Baxter. “He is Santi’s younger brother. I thought the name Cordero would excite a few people as Santi was a huge fans’ favourite. He was popular amongst the squad and played exceptionally well for us during his time here.
“We are kind of hoping that his brother can now follow in his footsteps. Looking at him, he’s a little bit behind Santi in terms of his development, but hopefully what we’d like to see in the future is us having as much difficulty trying to keep hold of Facundo as we did with Santi because that is the quality of how he plays.”
Cordero – who is equally at home on the wing or at full-back – will move to the Chiefs from Argentinian club side, Los Ceibos.
Baxter added: “In terms of what I know about Facundo, he’s 21 years-old, he’s younger than what Santi was when he came over, but someone with some similar attributes. I am not going to sit here and say he’s someone who we have been tracking for six months, a year, because we haven’t.
“Things have happened relatively quickly. His agent let us know he was available and from a lot of nudging and prodding from Santi, saying if he was going to develop and move overseas, then we would be a good team. Ali Hepher and I have had a good look at some of his games and we like what we see.
“We haven’t spent a huge amount of time talking to him, but we are seeing enough quality there to see that it’s a very good move for us. In a lot of ways we see qualities that we saw with Santi, like the phone box type stepping to get in and out of tackles, which is clearly evident.
“There are bits of his game that he will need to develop to get to the very top of his game, but at the age he is, those development years are all ahead of him and we are hoping we can be part of that process.”