The world of football was shocked when Brazilian health officials forced Brazil vs Argentina FIFA World Cup qualifier to be suspended after invading the pitch to ask four Premier League players to vacate the stadium in São Paulo.
The health officials claimed that the four Premier League players – Emiliano Buendia and Emiliano Martinez of Aston Villa and Giovani Lo Celso and Cristian Romero of Tottenham did not quarantine for 14 days when they arrive in Brazil. Hence, the match failed to continue after 6 minutes into the game.
Though the scenario was strange to most football fans across the world, it was not a new scenario in South American football.
When the Brazil vs Argentina match was suspended due to the invasion of Brazilian health workers, fans of South American football remembered an incident when Ecuadorian footballer, Enner Valencia allegedly faked his injury to escape an arrest.
The incident happened in October 2016 during a FIFA World Cup qualifier between Ecuador vs Chile. During the game, Enner Valencia suddenly fell on the pitch and complained about altitude sickness.
He was immediately given an oxygen mask and placed on a golf buggy. As he was being driven away from the stadium, police officers numbering up to 12 chased after the golf buggy.
Afterward, the police reportedly waited at the entrance of the medical unit of the stadium for the footballer to come out. However, the footballer was transferred to the hospital from the stadium. Hence, the police were not able to make the arrest.
Later on, it was confirmed that the police had an arrest warrant to arrest Enner Valencia for failing to pay about £13,000 in child maintenance bills to his ex-wife Sinthyia Pinargote.
Due to the conflicting court rulings about the issue, the arrest warrant was revoked and Valencia was allowed to concentrate on his football career.
Think Brazil vs Argentina was crazy? In another CONMEBOL Qualifier between Ecuador vs Chile, Enner Valencia fakes an injury to be stretchered and taken away as quickly as possible as the cops are chasing him for not paying his child maintainance/alimony dues 😂😂🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/fTpIRFJr5b
— Karan Singh (@iakonzs) September 6, 2021
Enner Valencia and his ex-wife Sinthyia Pinargote’s saga is different from Brazil vs Argentina
Sinthyia Pinargote and Enner Valencia were married for years before they decided to end the marriage. Before then, the marriage has produced a daughter, Sharon Valencia.
Initially, the court obligated Valencia who was playing for Everton then, to pay his wife yearly child maintenance fee which he could not keep up with because he felt the woman was using it for her personal needs.
In his reaction to how the police attempted to arrest him when he was on international duty with Ecuador over the child maintenance fee, Enner Valencia said in a statement that the court had granted him custody of his daughter since December 2015 which ended the payment of the child maintenance fee to his ex-wife.
Valencia went on to say that several judicial processes are ongoing against him by Pinargote, “which are designed for her benefit, such as a demand for alimony payments at a fixed amount of $30,000 a month for child maintenance.”
The player also said that “in the last two years a sum of approximately $100,000 has been made in alimony payments, which can be verified on the judiciary’s website.”
Currently, Enner Valencia has moved on from that scandal while he continued to concentrate on his football career. The 31-year-old Ecuador international is currently playing for Fenerbahce Istanbul.
He reportedly earns over £1.4 million per year at the Turkish club which is enough to take care of his new wife Sharon Escobar and his daughter Sharon Valencia.
