Edwarlyn Reyes is a 21-year-old left-back and wide midfielder for Cibao FC and the Dominican Republic U22s. He was recently named Best Young Player of the CONCACAF Caribbean Cup after starting all 8 of his club’s matches. In his domestic league (Liga Dominicana de Fútbol), he has appeared 15 times, scoring 4 goals. Additionally, Reyes has 2 caps for the Dominican Republic’s U20s, making his debut in 2022.
Reyes is above average height (listed at 1.75 m, looks closer to 1.80 m) for a wide player and has a thin frame. He lacks lower-body strength and can be knocked off balance when trying to absorb contact, but is strong enough with his back to goal in moments. Reyes has enough length to give him long strides and notable long pace, while also having an explosive first step. This, combined with his agility to flip his hips quickly, allows him sharp change of direction for cutting inside and turning to recover. His length and mobility give him the range to cover lots of ground up and down the left flank, though he must play with more intensity. Aerially, Reyes displays willingness to battle but tends to come in too aggressively or late, leading to frequent fouls. He is not consistently strong enough to win aerial duels or clear cleanly with his headers. His athletic profile is overall impressive, with promise to improve aerially.
In possession, Reyes really stretches the pitch from wide and often plays high up in the formation. He puts in a high volume of timely trailing runs, mostly overlapping, delaying to maintain width. Though his first touch can be slightly heavy, he is a dynamic dribbler on his dominant left foot. Reyes can hesitate on reception at times, allowing pressure to recover. So, despite his explosiveness and some trickiness on ball, his dribbling is still an area of improvement if he is to adapt to a higher standard of play. He will use his weaker right foot to for ball retention with decent technique on one-touches and short passes inside after cutting in. Outside of that, Reyes’ distribution is reliant on his dominant foot, capable of a variety of passing styles. He is comfortable combining play after inverting on the dribble and has solid enough risk evaluation to play back passes down the line to retain. On the contrary, his decision-making can be rushed and dribbling unnecessarily risky in tight areas, forcing combinations instead of continuing carries into space. His mindset is quite progressive, though, usually continuing forward after releasing passes inside or through. The main strength of his on-ball profile is his out-swinging crosses, often putting them in early, lots of times on first or second touch. Reyes is quite comfortable receiving in stride and using his momentum to help with his crossing, driving or lofting deep crosses into the back post and drilling lower attempts into the near post (sometimes as cutbacks). He rapidly strikes his crosses before pressure comes and displays consistent preemptive scanning to deliver it that way, but his execution is inconsistent if he is pressured due to hesitations, leading to blocked crosses or mishits. As a finisher, Reyes has shown promising moments to use his ability to cut inside to finish on his weak foot, including a well-placed low strike into the far post toward the end of his match vs. Atlético Pantoja.
Defensively, Reyes is most effective in recovery due to his natural pace and proactive yet somewhat inconsistent reactions to possession loss. He recovers early, using his scanning to identify progression, though this suffers at times due to how high he can play up the pitch, leading to longer recoveries where he lacks intensity. His recovery defending allows him to block cutbacks, rush crosses, and frequently intercept by cutting out lanes through. Reyes has astute defensive instincts to step into lanes and anticipate chipped balls, willing to step up from his line, particularly inside. This does drag him out of position at times, as he can be a bit late to step in, which leaves space in behind on his flank. He prefers to use his length and positioning to take away angles rather than lunging in, but his closeouts can be rash and lacking control, fouling at times. This makes his 1v1 defending inconsistent, having poor angles in pursuit, allowing too much space from wide for his marker to cross from. When marking off ball, he is mostly disciplined tracking runs into his box, especially at the back post, but he could afford to get tighter. Reyes can also be caught ball-watching from rest defence. Overall, his defensive profile is too reliant on his recovery ability, which could hamper him from playing as a true left-back at a higher level.
Reyes has promising athletic and in possession traits that should earn him some attention. A permanent move further up the pitch could highlight his strengths more and give him a higher ceiling. If his next club prefers to complete his development with a defensive focus, I can see him being a reliable low-block wingback for elite Central American sides once his frame has filled out. If Reyes can make a move abroad soon, superior coaching in the reserves of the MLS or even in a Spanish academy could help him fulfill his potential.
Target Scouting 