Enner Valencia has revealed he learned about West Ham and the club’s passionate support by watching Green Street.
The Ecuador forward sealed a £12million move from Mexican side Pachuca to Upton Park in the summer after impressing at the World Cup.
And now we know how he was persuaded to join Sam Allardyce’s men – he watched the football hooligans film.
Speaking to Jacob Steinberg of the Guardian, Valencia has opened up for the first time on his move to London.
He said:
I knew about West Ham mainly from watching films. And I know the supporters were very passionate.
Steinberg continues:
In that context, they could have done without an apparently off-message Valencia grinning enthusiastically and confirming the film he was thinking of was indeed Green Street, the 2005 Elijah Wood classic about the tale of an American student who visits London, goes to West Ham with a man whose atrocious cockney accent rivals Dick van Dyke’s and becomes a football hooligan.
“As far as we know, it is not based on a true story but West Ham would understandably rather not be associated with a film that glorifies hooliganism.
We can just imagine Valencia’s shock after learning that cockneys don’t speak anything like this…
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