Lasun Alagbe
Pragmatic analysts may crown Enner Valencia of Ecuador as the Qatar World Cup’s highest scorer at least for the opening game.
He leads with his two first-half goals that gave his country victory over host Qatar on Sunday in the opening game of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Both were scored in the first half.
Enner Remberto Valencia Lastra (born 4 November 1989) is an Ecuadorian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe and captains the Ecuador national team.
Valencia has previously played for Emelec in Ecuador, where he won the 2013 Ecuadorian Serie A and was awarded the Copa Sudamericana Golden Boot in 2013. Valencia also played for Pachuca in Mexico, being awarded the Liga MX Golden Boot in the 2014 Clausura tournament. He joined West Ham United for an estimated £12 million in July 2014.
At the international level, Valencia has earned over 70 caps for Ecuador since his debut in 2012. He represented the nation at the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and 2022, and the Copa América in 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2021. With 37 goals, Valencia is Ecuador’s all-time top goalscorer, and holds the record for the most goals at World Cup finals for his country, with five.
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Meanwhile, the News Agency of Nigeria reports that the home nation froze on their big night with an error-strewn display that left them as the first World Cup hosts to lose their opening game.
Valencia, who had already had a third-minute header ruled out by VAR for offside, slotted in the tournament’s opening goal from the penalty spot in the 16th minute after being brought down by nervous-looking goalkeeper, Saad Alsheeb.
He powered home a 31st-minute header for the second and the South Americans then cruised home as an outclassed Qatar struggled to mount any meaningful attack and had only a fluffed header by Almoez Ali to show for their limited efforts.
The other teams in Group A, Senegal and the Netherlands, meet in one of three games on Monday.
