Kevin Minda is a 23-year-old versatile defensive midfielder of Universidad Católica. The player of Universidad Católica came through LDU Quito’s youth academy but was loaned with an option to buy in 2020. He impressed, and Universidad Católica exercised the option to buy Minda. The Ecuadorian youngster has a contract that expires on 31-12-2024 and his current transfer value is estimated around €1m.
The midfielder stands at around 1.76 meters and has a normal build. This can be deemed as slightly too short for a defensive midfielder. He is not the strongest in physical duels, but he holds his own. Minda is very intelligent with his positioning, cutting passing lanes well, which helps him to stay out of the duels at times. The Ecuadorian has okay acceleration, but really gets going over long distances, showing good speed over 20-30 meters. His athleticism is alright, but he can sometimes look a bit slow when changing his body positioning. His footwork could be improved. Kevin Minda has good composure and concentration.
Kevin Minda plays a very important part in the first phase of Universidad Católica’s build-up. He gets trusted with receiving the ball under pressure and often receives powerful passes. Minda’s good ball control and first touch allows him to play one-touch football under pressure, without losing the ball. Even though Minda is not your typical progressive deep-lying playmaker, his on the ball ability helps Universidad Católica to get the ball to the creative players (F. Martínez, Aron Rodriguez and formerly Alzugaray). Kevin Minda tends to go for the short passes into the full-back or central midfielders.
In that first phase of the build-up, Kevin Minda sometimes positions himself between the two central defenders, creating a 3+1 situation. In other situations, he tries to get into space between the lines. Minda has excellent spatial awareness and always creates space for himself in the build-up. He tends to play first-time short passes and prefers to use the outside of his right boot over using his weaker left foot. He always tries to go for forward passes, scanning well before receiving.
Defensively, he has very smart positioning and he is always scanning. His defensive awareness and vision is excellent, cutting passing lanes well and making the right decisions. Minda is never caught out of position and is solid in 1v1 duels. He has a past of playing as a right central defender, which really shows.
It is a bit hard to predict whether Kevin Minda can make that step to Europe. I think that he is more suited to South-American football for the time being, with him being a smart acquisition for almost every team in Argentina. His good technique in combination with his smart defensive decision-making would work really well in the Argentinian league. I think that he could play in almost every system with his versatility (being able to play as a CB, RB and DM), but I would prefer to see him as a defensive midfielder in a possession-based 433, because of his vulnerability in aerial and (sometimes) physical duels.