Agustin Delgado might have spent more than two years in the Premiership, but few in the current England squad are likely to remember him. Except, perhaps, for Sol Campbell. The Arsenal defender suffered an afternoon to forget during one of just two league matches the Ecuador striker started at St Mary’s.
Campbell was sent off and Delgado’s face lights up at the memory of a game in November 2002 that Southampton won 3-2. The score was 1-1 when Campbell was dismissed. ”I remember it was one of the only games I started in,” he says.
”I wanted to show everybody I could play. I made a run and the Arsenal defender [Campbell] took me down. Then we went ahead. It was a great game. At the end I snuck around the defence and put in a goal [to make it 3-1] and we won the game. That was the highlight of my time at Southampton.”
It was pretty much the only cheer Delgado enjoyed during his time in English football, which ended in 2004. Yet, while his tendency to go awol frustrated Southampton manager Gordon Strachan, his talent, when fully focused, went unquestioned.
His record of 31 goals in 70 internationals, including two goals in two games during this World Cup, also commands respect and Delgado has been the inspiration behind Ecuador’s passage into the second round. After being rested for Tuesday’s defeat against Germany, the 31-year-old represents the biggest danger to England’s passage into the quarterfinals.
”The World Cup has meant everything for a small country like Ecuador,” he said. ”We qualified while bigger, more important teams like Uruguay, Colombia and Chile did not. Football has helped to improve people’s lives by giving poor people something to be proud of. It is the most popular since I have been there.”
Delgado, nicknamed ”El Tin”, grew up in El Juncal in the Valle del Chota, and learnt football on the local pitches. He has since set up his own children’s foundation in El Juncal. His goals in qualification ensured Ecuador’s first World Cup participation in 2002, when they were eliminated in the group stages.
Sunday’s match is easily the biggest in the country’s history. ”England is a very solid team, one of the best in the world,” he says. ”I think they are definitely the favourites to win the World Cup this year. I am not scared of any team. This not to disrespect England or Brazil, but we have been playing together in the Ecuador team since we were 10 years old. Ulises de la Cruz, me, Ivan Hurtado and many of the other players grew up together. We all joined the youth national system and played hundreds of matches together over the years.”
Arsenal and England striker Theo Walcott was just 12 when Delgado joined Southampton in 2001. ”I remember seeing him in the youth games and I played against him a few times,” he says. ”We were at opposite ends of the pitch as we’re both forwards, but he looked very talented already.”
The England player most admired by Delgado, though, is Wayne Rooney. ”I love to watch Rooney play, he’s fast and dynamic and can change the game with one of his moves,” he says.
Having moved between clubs since leaving Southampton, Delgado is now playing for Liga de Quito in Ecuador, although he maintains that his style could have been suited to English football. Persistent knee and back injuries as well as several unexpected visits back to Ecuador, however, left him regularly sidelined.
”The English game is very fast, both in practice and in the game,” he says. ”Maybe I should have adapted better to what the coach [Gordon Strachan] wanted from me but I didn’t know what it was. Other players got to play in front [of me] every Saturday and I still had to prove myself before they would let me play. This made me angry and I didn’t react well.”
At the time, Strachan said he had never known a player to be given as many chances as Delgado. Rupert Lowe took much of the blame for the Delgado signing, but the Ecuadorian also has words of support for Lowe, who is facing a vote of shareholders, which might remove him as Southampton’s chairperson. ”He was very kind to me and my family,” he says. ”People like to always point out the negatives but the chairperson wasn’t on the field playing.” — Â