Kevin Kilbane on Antonio Valencia: Kilbane spoke glowingly about the remarkable man who has come from extreme poverty to become a Manchester United footballer.
Today, Antonio Valencia announced that he will be staying at Man United until the end of the 2018 season. It was news that will doubtless be received well by fans of the club.
Another year to give everything for the greatest club in the world @manutd. Happy to announce I’ve renew my contract 'til 2018 pic.twitter.com/svR2baBFqj
— Antonio Valencia (@anto_v25) January 17, 2017
There has always been an appreciation of Valencia since his Wigan days because of his ability - you don't rack up nearly 200 appearances for Man United if you lack that - but he is widely admired because of the way he has gone on to soldier for United after an horrific leg break against Rangers in September 2010.
Valencia's life story is a remarkable one. As a child growing up in Ecuador he and his two brothers would trawl the streets looking for discarded glass bottles, that his father would sell to a bottle-deposit. He would assist his mother selling drinks outside a football stadium and spend most of his free time playing football barefooted with other local kids. He was scouted when playing outside his home. Later, as he achieved decent success in Europe, he moved his family to Quito, Ecuador's capital city.
Kevin Kilbane played with Valencia at Wigan Athletic before Valencia moved to United. Kilbane was on Off the Ball tonight and spoke glowingly of the Ecuadorian.
I'll tell you. I played with Antonio at Wigan. Fantastic player.
Before he broke his leg he was having a really good spell (at United) in that first year or so...he had a horrendous leg break, of course.
It's never really been reported about Antonio - he was basically born in extreme poverty. No education, brought over to England from Villarreal. Paul Jewell brought him - someone saw him, I think it was the 2006 World Cup.
He couldn't speak English at all, and that was down to his education. He couldn't fathom it out...so we had an interpreter with us at Wigan for such a long time, who used to sit in the dressing room.
So you imagine, you have Paul Jewell there who used to eff and jeff and everything at us. And he (the interpreter) used to interpret everything back of Paul Jewell's team talk to Antonio in the corner. So he'd be whispering to Antonio in some other language.
What he's done in his life, Antonio, is just exceptional. And I've got total admiration for him.
Kilbane said that Valencia would "come in with a smile on his face every day."
A remarkable story - one even the most hard-core Man City or Liverpool fan can appreciate.
Listen to the full Off the Ball segment here.
