English Premier League - Player Profile: Antonio Valencia
Valencia is an Ecuadorian professional footballer who was born in Lago Agrio and also spent his child hood in the city of his birth in Ecuador. His football career began at El Nacional F.C but he soon moved to the Spanish football league side Villarreal in 2005.
While at Villarreal, Antonio was suffered from lack of first team opportunities and that saw him move on a loan deal to Recreativo De Huelva for a major part of the 2005-2006 season. With Recreativo, Valencia made consistently impressive performances that helped the second division side to obtain promotion to the first division of Spanish football, also known as the La Liga.
At the beginning of the 2006-2007 season, Wigan Athletic signed Valencia on an year long loan deal from Villarreal, the idea behind this move to the English league was that, the young Ecuadorian winger would start a lot of games for the Latics and in doing so, he will maintain his fitness levels. Another motive behind this move was also to assist Valencia in gaining some valuable experience at the top level of professional football.
Antonio’s debut game for Wigan Athletic in the English Premier League was a two one defeat to Newcastle United, however his first goal for the English club side came against Manchester City on 21st of October 2006, in a four goals to nil win over the Manchester club. Valencia astonished the English fans throughout the 2006-2007 season and at the end of the Premier League campaign for Wigan, Antonio’s loan deal was extended by a year so that he could stay in the English league for the 2007-2008 season.
In the middle of the 2007-2008 season in January of 2008, Wigan reached a deal with Villarreal and agreed on an undisclosed transfer fee for the player. Valencia signed a three and a half year contract deal with Wigan on 18th of January 2008.
An year later in the exact same month of January, Valencia was approached by the Spanish giants Real Madrid but he kindly refused their proposed deals of transferring to the Spanish football league. In the summer of 2009, Wigan’s chairman promptly told the media that he would not force Antonio to remain with Wigan given that reputable football clubs were beginning to show their interest in the Ecuadorian winger.
On 30th of June, 2009 Antonio Valencia agreed on a four year contract with Manchester United. United paid sixteen million pounds for the skillful youngster to Wigan Athletic and Valencia’s debut in an Manchester United shirt came in the 2009 F.A Community Shield in the 62nd minute of the match, as he replaced the injured Luis Nani.
Valencia was bought by United to primarily fill the void left at the club after the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid. The famous Ecuadorian midfielder scored his first goal for United in their Premier League tie against Bolton Wanderers on 17th of October 2009, a match that Manchester United eventually won by two goals to one. Antonio’s first UEFA Champions League goal came four days later when he scored against CSKA Moscow in a one nil win for United.
At the end of the 2009-2010 season, Valencia was included in the Professional footballers association’s Premier League team of the year along with team mates such as Patrice Evra, Wayne Rooney and Darren Fletcher. As far as the young Ecuadorian’s first international cap is concerned, Valencia started Ecuador’s 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Paraguay, a match that Ecuador won by five goals to two and Valencia scored two of the five goals for his native country.
Antonio will be looking to start the new season in a week’s time on 14th of August 2010 for Manchester United on a high. He will be striving to compete for a first team spot against the likes of Luis Nani and Ryan Giggs.
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