When Sam Allardyce was in charge of West Ham United, he was often labelled as a 'long-ball manager.' However, when Enner Valencia, who is just 5 ft 10 in, joined the club, the Hammers mixed up their play a lot.
Allardyce would play a 4-1-2-1-2 formation with Valencia up front with Diafra Sakho. Alex Song was the holding midfielder, with Stewart Downing in the attacking role. Mark Noble would control the midfield alongside the likes of Kevin Nolan, Morgan Amalfitano, or Cheickhou Kouyate.
Aaron Cresswell and Carl Jenkinson would bomb forward as full-backs. Adrian was in goal, with Winston Reid, James Collins, or James Tomkins ahead of him. The Hammers were very dynamic and had to do so with Andy Carroll injured for much of the 2014/15 season.
Early on in that campaign, West Ham had famous wins at Upton Park over Liverpool and Manchester City. However, the season petered out, and Allardyce was replaced by Slaven Bilic at the end of it. Valencia would feature during the final season at Upton Park before going on loan to Everton.
Valencia has since spent his career globetrotting. He played for Tigres, Fenerbahce, Internacional, and Pachuca. He is now with Boca Juniors, and recently grabbed headlines for scoring a hat-trick of headers. He did this as a substitute in a 3-2 win over Racing, where Boca were two goals down.
Notable players have now represented both Boca and West Ham
The striker is now 36 and retired from international football at the last World Cup. He handed over the captain's armband to their new star player, Moisés Caicedo. However, Valencia is still thriving at the club level.
Boca is famed for its fanatical supporters at La Bombonera. Going there is on the bucket list of most football fans. They have had other players represent both West Ham and Boca in the past. The most famous example is Carlos Tevez.
Tevez arrived at West Ham alongside Javier Mascherano in a surprise move in 2006. Mascherano was kept out of the side by Hayden Mullins. However, Tevez would go on to star for the Hammers and score the winning goal against Manchester United to keep the club in the Premier League.
However, West Ham were forced to let Tevez go as a result of the third-party ownership scandal. Boca were Tevez's first club, and he would go on to have three stints with them in total. He returned to Boca after his spell at Juventus. He then picked up a lot of money with a stint in China with Shanghai Shenhua before ending his playing career back at Boca.
The other player to represent West Ham and Boca is Jonathan Calleri. He was successful at Boca before joining Deportivo Maldonado. He went on loan from them to West Ham during the 2016/17 season. However, Calleri scored just once in 19 games for West Ham.
His goal for the Hammers was a deflected strike in a 3-1 win over Middlesbrough in the Premier League. Calleri then went on further loans before joining São Paulo permanently. South American football is one to watch for Hammers fans, with many of their former players there. This is not just Valencia and Calleri, but Manuel Lanzini is at Velez Sarsfield as well.
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