Antonio Valencia easily could be one of the best Ecuadorian players in history. Not only because of what he did internationally with Manchester United, but also what he represented for Ecuador. However, as the years have passed, with a newand young generation, Ecuador will leavehim behindfor the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Antonio Valencia has played 99 international gamesforEcuador. In fact, Valencia made his debut in 2004 as a 19-year-old. Since then, Valencia started a wonderful career for his country, being of themainreferencesof each team, no matter if it was in World Cup, Copa America o Qualifiers game.
Even so, during his first years with Ecuador, he was a very important player as a right back, with lot of skills towards the goal. For example, in a World Cup Qualifiers game against Paraguay, he scored two goals, to pick up the win for La Tricolor. Later that same week, Villarreal signed him.
Why is Antonio Valencia missing the Qatar 2022 World Cup?
Antonio Valencia played his last tournament as an international player for Ecuador in the Copa America 2019, when the tournament was played in Brazil. In that tournament, Ecuador couldn’t qualified for the next stage, and was eliminated in the group stage with zero wins after three games.
Despite he didn’t made any announcements previous to the game against Japan, the 1-1 draw againstin Belo Horizonte, finally was his last game ever with the Ecuador national team. In fact, after that game there was a huge scandal involving him and several other playersthat threw a party inside the hotel they were in for the tournament.
Antonio Valencia played for Ecuador in two World Cup tournaments, in 2006 and 2014. This last one as the captain of the team.Also, Valencia played 4 Copa America tournaments, in which the 2019 edition was his last one.