Tag: Almeria

Pace and panache of marauding left-back Pervis Estupiñán

ECUADOR international Pervis Estupiñán stepped comfortably into the boots of Marc Cucurella when Albion signed him from Villarreal in the summer of 2022.

Rampaging runs down the left wing, pinpoint crosses and the occasional spectacular goal unleashed from distance all endeared the player to the Albion faithful.

A terrific goal he scored away to Crystal Palace in February 2023 was ruled out by VAR – and to compound the injustice, the referees body PGMOL subsequently admitted the strike had mistakenly been ruled out when John Brooks drew the offside line against the wrong Palace player.

“I was very sad about that disallowed goal because I don’t score a lot,” Estupiñán said later. “I remember it was a very equal game, but we played well.” The game finished 1-1.

One that did count, though, sealed Albion’s impressive 3-0 win away to Arsenal on 14 May 2023.

It was a fitting end to what was an impressive first season with the Seagulls during which he made 35 starts and six appearances off the bench.

His performances as the straightforward replacement for the previous season’s player of the year meant Albion could glow in the warmth of having trousered £62m for Cucurella and replaced him with a top quality defender for whom they paid £14.9m.

After he had scored his second goal for the Seagulls in a 4-1 win at Wolves at the beginning of the 2023-24 season, Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi said he believed the defender had the potential to become one of the best left-backs in the world if he continued to improve his first touch and his passing.

“Pervis is one of the most crucial players for us because he started from left-back, but you can find him in a striker position,” he said. “He’s very smart, he’s one of our secrets I think.”

Praising Albion’s recruitment department for “yet again delivering another masterstroke” in signing Estupiñán, The Professional Football Scouts Association declared: “Full of determination, tenacity, energy and running power, his impact has been felt heavily on both ends of the pitch, as his all-round contribution has been a major asset for Roberto De Zerbi’s Seagulls.

“While his defensive work has been solid, with him feisty in his duels, aggressive in the press, good at tracking runners and positionally sound, it’s been his offensive impact that’s really caught the eye.”

The organisation talked about his “devastating and varied movement” and highlighted the way he dovetailed with Kaoru Mitoma in front of him. “The pair’s astute interchanges and ability to create space for each other by drawing or pinning adversaries has been a joy to watch,” it said.

“Be it making headway with wicked infield underlapping runs, blistering overlaps or making room for his colleagues by acting as a decoy, his movement has been a huge source of inspiration going forward for Brighton.”

Brighton certainly felt his loss with a muscle injury over the course of several months in the 2023-24 season, with The Athletic maintaining: “None of the replacements who tried to fill the void created by his absence possess the adventurous Estupiñán’s blend of athleticism, power and stamina.”

In a detailed analysis of his stats, the platform suggested in January 2024 that Estupiñán had a strong claim to be considered the best left back in the Premier League, comparing him favourably against Liverpool’s Andy Robertson, Man Utd’s Luke Shaw and Arsenal’s Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Although he scored two stunning goals (in a 4-2 home win over Spurs and a 4-2 win at Stoke City in the FA Cup) within a matter of nine days mid-season, too often on his return to the Albion side in the second half of the season, Estupiñán didn’t look anything like the player fans had enjoyed watching the previous campaign.

And then his season ended too early when he was subbed off in the first half of the 1-1 draw at Burnley in April with an ankle injury that subsequently required surgery, ruling him out of playing for his country in the Copa America summer competition.

De Zerbi reckoned Estupiñán would not be fit enough to start the new season and it remains to be seen when Albion fans might see him return to the starting line-up. In the meantime, another south American, Valentin Barco, has slotted into that position with aplomb.

Born in the coastal Ecuadorian city of Esmeraldas on 21 January 1998, Estupiñán’s footballing journey began aged 13 in the youth set up at Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito, in the country’s capital.

Given his professional debut shortly after his 17th birthday in 2015, he made 40 appearances in Ecuador’s top division and represented his country in the 2015 South American under-17 Championship and the FIFA under-17 World Cup. He was also given an early taste of international club competition in the Copa Sudamericana and the Copa Libertadores.

Not long after being selected in the best XI of the 2015 Ecuadorian Serie A season, Estupiñán joined the Pozzo-family-owned Watford, although he didn’t actually play a game for the Hornets in four years on their books. At the time, the Pozzos also owned Granada in Spain where Estupiñán spent the 2016-17 season on loan.

Subsequent season-long loans were also spent in Spain at Almeria, Mallorca and Osasuna, as detailed by Zach Lowy on breakingthelines.com.

It was said he would return to be part of Watford’s side for the 2020-21 season but their relegation from the Premier League led to him being sold instead.

In action for Villarreal

When Villarreal’s regular left-back Alberto Moreno was sidelined for six months after rupturing his ACL in pre-season, they signed Estupiñán for £15m to plug the gap. Lowy described him as “an athletic, technically sound left back who marauds up the flank with pace and panache and can deliver a deadly cross like few others”.

Lowy said Estupiñán excelled under Unai Emery as Villarreal finished seventh and won the Europa League for the first time in the club’s history (although Estupiñán was an unused substitute when they beat Manchester United on penalties in the final). He went on to make 74 appearances for them, including helping them to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League.

Having played at under 17 and under 20 levels for his country, Estupiñán made his first senior start for Ecuador in a 6-1 defeat to Argentina in 2019 but he went on the same year to play in that year’s Copa America when they reached the quarter finals and he played in all three Ecuador matches at the 2022 World Cup (together with fellow countrymen and Albion teammates Moises Caicedo and Jeremy Sarmiento).

That man from Argentina scored goals in the UK and Spain

LEONARDO ULLOA brought down the curtain on his playing career in Madrid, netting six goals in 20 appearances (plus 12 off the bench) for Rayo Vallecano in the Spanish second division.

It was to the delight of Brighton fans that 28 of his career 148 goals were scored for the Albion, where he quickly established himself as a fans favourite by scoring on his debut against Arsenal in the FA Cup.

Previously virtually unknown in England, Ulloa’s arrival in January 2013 provided the tall, goalscoring presence up front Brighton had been craving since Glenn Murray headed to Crystal Palace in the summer of 2011.

Within two months, Ulloa was cementing his place in Albion history by scoring the first ever hat-trick at the Amex, in a 4-1 win over Huddersfield Town, and it wasn’t long before fans were serenading him with his own terrace song: “Who’s that man from Argentina, who’s that man we all adore…..”

His efforts in the stripes got even better when he scored twice in a memorable 3-0 win over Palace that March giving the Seagulls their first home win over their bitter rivals for 25 years.

After the game, manager Gus Poyet told BBC Radio Sussex: “Leonardo Ulloa is making the difference. I am pleased for him. If he had been here for the first six months I can’t imagine where we would be right now.

“What a prize for him, scoring two goals against our biggest rivals. I am very happy for him.” By the season’s end, Ulloa had scored 11 goals in 16 starts (plus one substitute appearance).

While Poyet departed acrimoniously after defeat in the play-off semi-finals, Ulloa continued to thrive under new boss Oscar Garcia. Top-scoring with 16 goals, he’ll always most memorably be known for nodding in a last-gasp header from Craig Mackail-Smith’s left-wing cross to secure a 2-1 win at the City Ground, Nottingham on 3 May 2014.

It earned Albion another play-offs place in the bid to secure promotion to the Premier League, although a 6-2 aggregate defeat at the hands of Derby County meant it didn’t end well.

Sadly, not only did it mark the end of Garcia’s reign, it also led to Ulloa’s exit from the club, but the £8m record fee newly-promoted Leicester City paid for his services was difficult to resist, quite apart from the player’s desire to play at the top level.

Switching to the East Midlands was a short hop compared to the journey he had to make when he was starting out in the game.

Born on 26 July 1986 in General Roca, a city in Argentina’s northern Patagonian province of Rio Negro, Ulloa moved 700 miles from home at the age of 15 to pursue his footballing dream, as he told Brian Owen of The Argus in a 2013 interview.

It was only when he wasn’t getting much playing time in Argentina that he took the opportunity to move to Spain, initially with Spanish second-tier side Castellon in the Valencia region.

When they were relegated in 2010, he stayed in the second tier by moving to the south east of the country to join Almeria, where he scored 39 times in 90 appearances. It was from there Albion bought him for an undisclosed sum, widely thought to be £2m.

The subsequent move to Leicester couldn’t have got off to a better start when Ulloa scored Leicester’s first Premier League goal for a decade in August 2014, hitting the net on his debut against Everton at the King Power Stadium. He also scored a brace of goals in a famous 5-3 victory over Manchester United.

Indeed at the end of that 2014-15 season, Ulloa was Leicester’s top scorer with 13 goals in 31 appearances (plus nine as a sub).

Few could have imagined it was going to get a whole lot better the following season, but as Claudio Ranieri’s City shocked the football world by climbing to the summit of the Premier League and staying there, Ulloa collected a title winners medal for his contribution.

Although he made just nine starts, as Jamie Vardy and Shinji Okazaki took centre stage, he appeared 22 times as a substitute and, in his supporting role, chipped in with six – often vital – goals.

He scored an 89th minute winner to earn a 1-0 win over Norwich City after entering the fray as a 78th minute sub and, when defeat at home to West Ham looked on the cards after Vardy had been sent off, he coolly netted a penalty in the fifth minute of added on time to secure a 2-2 draw.

With Vardy suspended for the following game, Ulloa stepped up with two goals in a 4-0 win at home to Swansea City.

Phil McNulty, BBC Sport’s chief football writer, said Ulloa had fully repaid the faith shown in him by Ranieri. “When Ulloa earned the Foxes a vital point with a stoppage-time penalty last weekend against West Ham, he showed he was not a man to be perturbed by pressure – and he relished the responsibility put on his shoulders against Swansea,” he wrote, describing how Ulloa “ran selflessly all afternoon to compensate for the darting, pacy threat of Vardy, and most importantly contributed two goals that eventually made this a stroll for Leicester City”.

It all turned sour for him at the King Power Stadium the following season and with a lack of involvement his frustration went public as he sought a move away. Sunderland, fighting (ultimately in vain) relegation from the Premiership, reportedly had three bids to sign him turned down in the January 2017 transfer window.

Ulloa told Sky Sports News reporter Rob Dorsett: “I’m a bit sad about the current situation. It’s been two wonderful years at the club but now, given my situation – not playing and not being part of the team’s plans – I feel that the best way forward is I leave and I can be happy somewhere else.”

He added: “They know I am not going to be used. The best thing for both parties is they sell me to another club and I can continue playing my football somewhere else.”

However, when Ranieri was sacked the following month, Ulloa found a path to first team football re-opened under new boss Craig Shakespeare. He only made four starts but he appeared off the bench 19 times, and, in August 2017, signed a new two-year contract with the Foxes.

Speaking to LCFC TV, Ulloa said: “I am so happy because I have lived massive moments with this club and it makes me happy to stay here and fight, to help the team and increase the club’s history. That is so important and I am so happy for this two-year contract. Now I have to fight to play. I will train and give my best. I appreciate it a lot to stay here and I am so happy here now. For that, I want to continue in this in the same way by working hard and working my best for the club.”

Shakespeare added: “Leo’s goals and performances have been key to some wonderful moments for this football club since he first joined and I’m delighted to have him with us for another two years. He’s a popular member of the squad and gives us an excellent option in attack.”

All of the words came to nought however, because Ulloa was barely involved, other than sitting on the subs bench and only getting on once. So, in January 2018, he was happy to return to Brighton on loan to supplement the striking options in Chris Hughton’s squad.

But with Glenn Murray in top form and Sam Baldock and Tomer Hemed as other striker options, Ulloa only made four starts plus eight appearances as a sub. He scored twice, including opening the scoring against Manchester City at the Etihad, but Albion didn’t share the striker’s enthusiasm for a permanent return to the Seagulls.

Instead of moving back to the south coast, Ulloa headed to Mexico to join Pachucha, and a year later he headed back to Europe, and back to Spain, to sign for Rayo Vallecano.

The striker spent eight months sidelined by a serious knee injury in 2020 but returned to action in October 2020 before retiring at the end of the 2020-21 season. Ulloa received a warm reception from Albion fans when he was interviewed on the Amex pitch in March 2023 when West Ham were the visitors.

Pictures from various online sources.