Sarmiento ends his year without a goal
On Saturday, August 22, 2026, Jeremy Sarmiento opened the score for Middlesbrough against Blackburn Rovers in the second matchday of the Championship. The Ecuadorian needed 12 minutes to score his first goal for the club, after receiving on the left side inside the box and striking a cross that put the White Rose ahead 1-0. The advantage was not enough: Blackburn responded in the second half with goals from Andri Gudjohnsen at the 49th minute and Todd Cantwell at the 55th, leaving Middlesbrough with a 2-1 loss.
Sarmiento ended his long drought of more than a year without scoring. His last official goal was in April 2025, when he was playing for Burnley. In January 2026 he left Brighton and joined Middlesbrough, where he seeks to regain continuity after several seasons of team changes.
Valencia maintains a scoring streak
Anthony Valencia also celebrated the same Saturday, but with Royal Antwerp in Belgium. The Ecuadorian striker opened the score against Genk around the 16th minute, after a recovery by Christopher Scott and a spectacular error by the opponent. Scott found Valencia inside the area and the striker finished with his left foot from the first touch to put the 1-0.
With that goal, Valencia reached three goals in his first three matches of the season with Antwerp, maintaining a 3-0 streak in the Belgian league. The match ended 4-4, with two late goals from his teammate Michael Frey. His presence is even more significant after the injuries that affected his continuity in previous years; in 2025 he suffered an ACL rupture that kept him out of the field for more than 200 days before regaining prominence with the Belgian club.
Ecuadorian context in Europe
August 22 also highlighted Nilson Angulo, who scored his first official goal for Sunderland in the 2026/27 Premier League, equalizing the match with a 24-meter free kick. Angulo, who joined in February 2026 from Anderlecht, also played in the 2026 World Cup with the national team, scoring against Germany in the 2-1 victory that allowed them to advance to the round of sixteen.
Together, the three Ecuadorian players demonstrated their goal-scoring ability in Europe, with Sarmiento ending his year without a goal in England and Valencia adding a streak of three goals in Belgium.
