Fabian Balbuena is following in a readitrion of South American Hammers and wants to make the same sort of impact!
The £6.5million defender was signed in July from Brazilian club Corinthians — one of Carolos Tevez’s former teams.
And he has spoken of how a number of players in South America were inspired by the heroics of the Argentinian and his compatriot Javier Mascherano.
Balbuena was a teenager in 2007 when Tevez saved the Hammers from relegation with a final-day winner away to Manchester United before moving on to the Red Devils and later neighbours Man City.
And he said: “Argentina’s players are of course an example for a lot of South American players. We know the quality of Mascherano and Tevez when they arrived here. They played very well and had a good season and then they went on to play in big teams.
“So all of us as players have had the target to play in big teams and grow up as people.
“I remember some games. Especially when West Ham won at Manchester United. Tevez scored the goal. I remember some other goals he scored too. ”
ClaretandHugh says: Fabian Balbuena has been as impressive as any player in a claret and blue shirt this season. For whatever reason his displays haven’t attracted the same sort of publicity as that heaped on Issa Diop but ‘The General’ has been immense and may be responsible for the development of the young Frenchman into the Premier League at a time when he has actually been developing into it himself. That’s quite a trick to pull. Time and again he has arrived at the point of danger to carry the ball to safety or execute a pass to set up a Hammers attack. At £6.5 million he has been another excellent buy and at 27 years of age has a fine future in front of him in an Irons shirt. With the guessing game going on as to who may be arriving this winter it’s more than possible that Pelle and his director of football Mario Husillos will unearth a to player or two from an area they know well – South America.