Remembering Antonio Valencia’s Premier League career

Former Manchester United and Wigan Athletic player Antonio Valencia retired this week at the age of 35 after playing the last two years of his career at LDU Quito and Querétaro.

Coming from the streets of Ecuador, the right-sided player lit up the Premier League with Wigan before earning a £16m move to then champions Manchester United, where he would go onto make over 300 appearances.

Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start from scratch.

Antonio Valencia’s first appearance

Valencia first graced the Premier League when he joined Wigan in 2006 on an initial one-year loan which became two as he impressed as a right-winger, picking up assist after assist.

In January of 2008, Valencia was signed permanently for around £5m. In the next year and a half, the Ecuadorian would go on to net 6 league goals.

Wigan boss Steve Bruce mentioned that Valencia even turned down the opportunity to play for Real Madrid.

“Replacing” Ronaldo

More from Manchester United

• Arsenal transfer news: Mikel Arteta rivals Manchester United for wonderkid
• Manchester United: Erik ten Hag pinpoints 4 players amid Brighton loss
• Manchester United predicted lineup vs Bayern Munich – UEFA Champions League 2023/24
• 3 reasons why other clubs are ‘annoyed’ by Erik ten Hag and Manchester United
• Manchester United: Erik ten Hag’s constant “crybaby” excuses don’t add up

In the summer of 2009, Valencia made the move to The Red Devils on a four-year deal. Many supporters likened the deal as a replacement for the outgoing Cristiano Ronaldo, but Valencia brought many different qualities.

Playing on the right side of the midfield, as he had done at Wigan, Valencia made powerful runs down the wing, part of his trademark, bagging six goals in his first two years at United.

He was included in the PFA Team of the Year in 2010 with a league cup and a Premier League title to his name.

In the following season, Valencia picked up the Player of the Season award to cement himself as one of the club’s best players.

In 2012, Valencia took the coveted number 7 shirt, but this led to an indifferent year and Valencia chose to return to his number 25 following the season as he felt he had not lived up to the honour of the number.

Valencia’s transition to right-back

Over the next few years, as Sir Alex Ferguson retired and Louis Van Gaal was brought in, Valencia was deployed at right-back as younger players were placed in front of him. This was a position that he flourished in and earned himself a new three-year deal in 2015.

Even though successes became rare at United for some time, Valencia was consistently one of the team’s best players and a stalwart, admired by all coaching staff that came through the door in their transitional period.

In 2018 Valencia left Manchester United after making 325 appearances in the Premier League, which remains a record for a South American, and scoring 23 goals.

Manchester United have since finished top four in both seasons, and are finally looking like a team with high potential.

Valencia finished his career in South America and is heralded as one of Ecuador’s greatest ever players. In the Premier League, especially at Manchester United, he is known as a fan favourite who gave his all, week in, week out, no matter where he played.