Enner Valencia #13

Profile

Known as Superman for a reason. His nation’s all-time leading scorer came into this tournament having scored a record six World Cup goals for Ecuador, and is still going strong at 36 after rejoining Pachuca, where he once lifted the Liga MX Golden Boot. From sleeping in Emelec's stadium as a kid and raising the money for his first pair of boots by milking cows on his dad’s farm to shining at West Ham, Everton, Tigres, Fenerbahçe, Internacional, and now back in Mexico, his journey has been full of drama, and a little chaos, too. During a notorious 2016 World Cup qualifier against Chile in Quito he was playing with an arrest warrant looming over him due to a dispute over child maintenance payments, and noticed police loitering on the touchline to grab him at the final whistle. So, with 82 minutes on the clock, he collapsed, was taken off on a stretcher wearing an oxygen mask and rushed to an ambulance, which was then chased by the group of police officers around the running track. He escaped to a clinic; the dispute was later resolved.

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