AGUSTIN Delgado is a man with the dubious privilege of having been unfavourably compared with a gradually-curdling yoghurt in Gordon Strachan's fridge, but in Japan this week it is he who is keen to prove he isn't past his sell-by date.
The striker - already the most prolific in the history of Ecuadorean football - is now 34, but has been granted a final chance to shine on the world stage by the remarkable progress of little Liga de Quito (LDU), a far cry from the time Strachan answered a question about his striker by replying: "I've got more important things to think about. I've got a yoghurt to finish by today, the expiry date is today".
Having become the first Ecuadorean club ever to win the Copa Libertadores, the club known as Los Albos now have the chance to represent a whole continent at the Fifa World Club Cup in Japan, attempting to uphold South America's 22-21 advantage over their illustrious European cousins. If the seedings run to plan, Delgado and his teammates will meet Manchester United on Sunday to decide who is the pre-eminent club side in world football. It is a prospect hardly likely to overly please Strachan, who spent £3.5 million to bring the player to Southampton back in 2001, only to be rewarded with a paltry 11 appearances and a single goal in the course of the next three years.
Delgado goes by the nickname "Tin" and to say he is an enigmatic character is something of an understatement. His move to the south coast of England included scoring the winning goal for Southampton in a 3-2 home victory over then Premiership champions Arsenal, but not an awful lot else. Things reached a point of no return when the player sustained a serious knee injury, then refused the assistance of club doctors.
His career has had its highs, however. He has scored goals at two separate World Cup finals but he has also had his share of less savoury headlines. Once, when he was one of 11 players suspended for his part in a brawl at the end of LDU's 1-1 draw at home to Barcelona in December 2006 and then when he saw a move to MLS side New York Red Bulls fall through when being accused of assaulting a woman on a boozy New Year's Eve night out.
He comes from Piquiucho, a small village three hours north of the Ecuadorean capital Quito and one of the poorest regions in the country. As is not uncommon among Ecuadorian players, Delgado has his own foundation which does good deeds in the area. As a youngster, he quite literally kicked about with Ulises de la Cruz, the former Hibs full-back who would go on to become his international team-mate. De la Cruz - now at Reading - managed to settle in the UK easily enough. So what was the problem with his countryman?
"Every player has a different mentality, and some adapt more quickly than others," De la Cruz said. "Agustin is a good player, a good striker and he is really good in the air, but when he came to the UK he had many problems in the head. He got a bad injury. He had been playing in Mexico, and when you come to England you know it is not too easy, you need to work hard and be mentally strong and he wasn't ready for this challenge. I think he was a little bit confused when he arrived at Southampton.
"Agustin is the most successful striker in Ecuadorean history," De la Cruz added. "Although he didn't score many goals or play many games during his time in England, he is a good player, and has helped Ecuador a lot over the last eight or nine years. The first time we qualified for the World Cup, in 2002, he was joint top goalscorer with Hernan Crespo in the South American qualifiers."
LDU have come along way since being founded in 1930 by a group of students and their professors. They are now by far the biggest club in the country, and their Libertadores run under Argentinian coach Edgardo Buaza was achieved with wins over heavyweight opponents such as Estudiantes La Plata and San Lorenzo of Argentina, Mexican big spenders America and Fluminense of Brazil, who they beat in a penalty shoot out final in the Maracana thanks to three saves from goalkeeper Jose Cevallos.
And if the strength of the league is anything to go by, Ecuadorean football should be all right for a while to come. Last week, after all, saw LDU actually fail to regain their domestic title.
"I think Ecuadorean football has improved an awful lot in the last eight or nine years," said De la Cruz, a former LDU player. "Winning the Copa Libertadores, and playing in the World Cup has given the players confidence. It has opened a window for Ecuadorean players, given them more experience and made them stronger mentally. I think football in Ecuador is in the middle of a golden period at the moment."
That is why De la Cruz is unlikely to write his countrymen off, regardless of the multi-million talents which Sir Alex Ferguson's side have at their disposal. He will have done a good job indeed if Manchester United can match their Ecuadorian rivals for motivation.
"It is the first time that they have had the chance to play against these big teams in Europe, but I think that Liga have a good chance even against Manchester United. They have some very interesting players and it is a good chance for them to come and play against a good team.
"It is a shop window for all the players and a good opportunity for the team. I think they will definitely put up a good challenge."
Only once has a British team been able to call themselves the best club team in the world, treble-winning Manchester United in 1999, although that feat was tarnished shortly afterwards by their disastrous participation in the embryonic Club World Cup in 2000. If they can repeat that feat next week, they will certainly have earned it. Regardless of what Strachan thinks, Liga de Quito and their "tin" man are likely to make sure of that.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article