Antonio Valencia's journey to be a Red Devil

Antonio Valencia was bought to Manchester United to replace Christiano Ronaldo. The pressure upon him was so tense at that time. The critic doubts that Valencia can produce the performance to replace Ronaldo. Antonio Valencia may not be wearing the iconic no 7 shirt in the squad, but that doesn't stop him from filling Ronaldo's boots brilliantly. No doubt, Valencia first season as a Red Devil was a success.- Man Utd best signing from last season!

Here are things that you should know about Antonio Valencia..Man Utd rising star>>>

His full name is Luis Antonio Valencia Mosquera. His nickname Tono Maravilla means ‘The Marvel Tono’. The moniker was given to him by Orlando Narvaez, a coach from his first club El Nacional, who also gave Birmingham’s Christian Benitez his nickname ‘Chucho’.

The Valencia family sold drinks outside Lago Agrio’s Carlos Vernaza stadium near their bungalow in the district of Guayaquil. The young Valencia, one of seven children — six sons and a daughter — helped by trawling the streets for discarded bottles that his father sold to a bottle-deposit company.

Pedro ‘Papi’ Perlaza, once of Barcelona, spotted the slim young boy playing barefoot on a dusty field near his home. The kid was raw but had obvious natural talent and Perlaza loved the way he effortlessly won possession on the scorched ground. 

By coincidence, Perlaza had been asked to run a football academy in Sucumbios to find the best youngsters in the region. He signed Valencia that afternoon and spent four years improving his skills on pitches often flooded by monsoon rains.

At 16, Valencia moved to Quito and joined the army club Club Deportivo El Nacional on a monthly salary of £34. Within a year, he was fast-tracked into the Under 20s, where he played alongside Birmingham striker Christian ‘Chucho’ Benitez and scored 20 goals in 84 matches.

Valencia’s idol was Edison Mendez, now a winger with PSV Eindhoven. He made his El Nacional debut in the same team as his hero and the pair still play for the national team together, operating on opposite flanks. Valencia has 34 international caps.

His girlfriend Zoila gave birth to Domenik during the 2006 World Cup finals. His daughter’s name is tattooed on the inside of his right arm.

Valencia made his debut for Ecuador in March 2005 and scored twice in a 5-2 win over Paraguay which sealed qualification to the World Cup in Germany. That summer he joined Villarreal.

So impressive was Valencia’s performances at the 2006 World Cup, he was in the running for young player of the tournament with Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and eventual winner Lukas Podolski. He was also spotted by Wigan boss Paul Jewell.

Paul Jewell: ‘I was scouting for Wigan at Poland v Ecuador and I thought I might see some Poles of interest — when you’re manager of Wigan you don’t expect to be scouting Ecuadoreans. But Ecuador won 2-0 and there was one player who stood out — Valencia. I liked his reading of the game. I was surprised he was only 20. His game was much more mature.’

Wigan paid Villarreal a £1.5million loan fee and he signed for one season. ‘He arrived on a Friday and we had a pre-season friendly on the Saturday,’ said Jewell. ‘Without having trained, he came on for 20 minutes and straight away the lads could see he was a player. And I liked him, we all did, he always came in smiling.’

He used to attend English lessons with Hondurans Maynor Figueroa and Wilson Palacios before the latter’s move to Spurs. Manchester City’s Felipe Caicedo and Segundo Castillo of Everton joined them but Valencia still struggles with English and his written Spanish is limited. Steve Bruce, who inherited Valencia at Wigan, said: ‘He struggled with it, but it didn’t matter. You knew you could just put him on the pitch and he would pick it up.’

He meets regularly with ‘Chucho’ Benitez. Their friendship goes back to their teenage days together lining up for daily inspections in their army barracks. Benitez said: ‘I remember one day a trainer advised us to eat pasta and a lot of iron to keep fit, but Tono misunderstood. In South America pasta means sauce and it is also what they call toothpaste. The next day I find Valencia tucking in to a tube of Colgate.’

Dave Whelan (chairman of Wigan) said: ‘If every footballer was like Antonio, life would be wonderful. He is a quiet, clean-living, well-mannered young gentleman. When United and Real Madrid came in for him I told him straightaway. I promised all the South American lads that I would keep them informed when the big clubs came in. I did the same with Wilson Palacios. Real Madrid offered us more money but I advised him to go to United because I knew Sir Alex would look after him.’

Sir Alex Ferguson is unstinting in his praise for Valencia. ‘He’s got great balance, power and speed,’ said the Scot. ‘He’s immediately taken to the challenge well and with purpose. We’re very pleased with what we’ve seen.’