West Ham are expecting Ecuadorian striker Ennar Valencia to arrive in London today for talks despite missing an early plane to come to London.
Valencia joined Emelec in 2008 from Caribe Junior’s youth system, From 2008 to early 2010 he received no opportunities in the first team, but with the arrival of the Argentinian coach Jorge Sampaoli, Valencia started to receive playtime opportunities. Valencia’s first professional career goal was on 10th March 2010, scoring the only goal to gain an important away win against Ecuadorian giants LDU Quito.
Valencia initially began his career as a winger, but was converted to play as a striker by Emelec coach Gustavo Quinteros. Reinaldo Rueda started experimenting with Valencia as a striker after the untimely death of Christian Benítez. After numerous rumors involving the interest of Pachuca for Valencia, both Parties came to terms and agreed on a transfer in 2014.
On 18th January 2014, Valencia scored his first goal for Pachuca in a 2–1 victory against Tijuana. The following week he scored two goals to in Pachuca’s first away win league match against league champions Club León. He finished the season as the top goal-scorer with 12 goals, scoring various braces for Pachuca. Valencia scored his first hatitrick against UNAM in a 2–4 away win to advance in the Liga MX Apertura 2014 Playoffs. On 15 May, Valencia scored a brace on the first leg of the Liga MX Finals, winning the away match 3–2. In total Valencia netted 18 times in 23 games for Pachuca last season and also scored all three of Ecuador’s goals at the World Cup finals in Brazil.
After making three appearances in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign, he scored his first international goal in a 2–2 draw against Honduras on 19 November 2013. He continued his good form in 2014, scoring in three of Ecuador’s four pre-tournament friendlies. On 5 March, he scored, assisted a goal and won a penalty kick as La Tri came from 3–0 down to defeat Australia 4–3.5 He then scored the team’s only goal in a 3–1 loss against Mexico, and gave them an early lead in a 2–2 draw with England in Miami. In June 2014, Valencia was named in Ecuador’s squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. On 15 June, he made his FIFA World Cup debut in the team’s opening match against Switzerland at the Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha in Brasília, opening the scoring with a header in a 2–1 defeat. In Ecuador’s second match, Valencia scored both goals to defeat Honduras 2–1 in Curitiba.
Pachuca also looking for a sell-on clause as part of any deal..Pachuca club president Jesus Martinez said: ‘There are various offers for Enner Valencia, the strongest and closest to what the player and us are demanding is from a club from England. We are making huge steps to finalise the negotiation.’We want to keep a percentage of the player in case he is sold in the future to another big team in Europe. ‘I won’t talk about prices, but if he is sold, it will be the highest transfer fee ever in Mexican football, otherwise he won’t be sold. It hurts me, I don’t want to sell him and neither does the manager or the fans but we can’t go against the career the kid aspires to.’
West Ham are thought to have bid £12m for the player