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Former West Ham wonderkid scores on opening day La Liga win, 51 goals since Hammers exit

While Luizao leaves West Ham United without making a single Premier League appearance, the defender can take some inspiration from another one-time Hammers starlet.

Living, goalscoring proof that failing to make the grade as a precocious youngster in English football is far from the beginning of the end. As one door closes, another opens, as they say.

Like Luizao, Toni Martinez departed having not played even a minute of Premier League football, even if he did make a trio of first-team appearances in the cup competitions.

But, six years after the striker’s West Ham United contract expired, Martinez is preparing for another season sharing a pitch with Robert Lewandowski, Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe.

One suspects that, if you offered Luizao the chance to play La Liga football half-a-decade down the line, the departing Brazilian would jump at the chance to follow in Martinez’s footsteps.

Toni Martinez scores during Deportivo Alaves v Levante UD - LaLiga EA Sports

Photo by Ion Alcoba Beitia/Getty Images

Former West Ham United starlet Toni Martinez makes flying La Liga start

After scoring 14 goals in his first season after leaving West Ham, an immediate hit on Portuguese soil with Famalicao, Toni Martinez got his big break.

Martinez marked his FC Porto debut with a sumptuous scissor kick back in 2020. So the towering header which helped guide Deportivo Alaves to a 2-1 win on the opening weekend of the new La Liga season was not the first time the former Spain Under-19 international has exploded out of the blocks at the beginning of a campaign.

Moving to Spain on the back of 32 goals in four seasons at Porto, if Martinez felt he had a point to prove after a somewhat underwhelming debut year with Alaves, his goal during Saturday’s 2-1 victory over newly-promoted Levante was exactly the kind of response he would have been aiming for.

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“Beginnings are very important. It’s key to be in good physical and mental shape. Starting with three points is very important,” teammate Pablo Ibanez beamed after Martinez’s salmon-like leap helped Alaves join Real Madrid, Barcelona and co with three early points on the board; His 51st since leaving the Hammers.

“It was a long-awaited day and it was unbeatable.”

A prolific goalscorer in Valencia’s academy, Toni Martinez netted 23 in 25 West Ham United Under-21 appearances too. However, difficult loan spells at Oxford United, Lugo, Real Valladolid and Rayo Majadahonda put pay to his hopes of a first-team run at the London Stadium.

Now, a month on from his 28th birthday and having belatedly proven his worth in the senior game across the border in Iberia, Martinez will be hoping to become the next late-blooming centre-forward to hit the target for fun on Spanish soil.

Kike Garcia, Cristhian Stuani and Joselu – formerly of Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough and Newcastle United – set benchmarks Toni Martinez can certainly aspire to.

Josh Ajala is West Ham’s most exciting young striker these days

The goalscoring jewel in West Ham’s current academy crown, meanwhile, is probably Josh Ajala, although ex-Celtic starlet Daniel Cummings may have something to say about that when he recovers from a shoulder injury.

Ajala is aiming for a West Ham first-team debut having already made the step up from the Under-18s to Mark Robson’s Under-21 side. And if those Hammers dreams go unrequited… well, that didn’t hold Toni Martinez back.

“I’ve had opportunities to train with the first team which has been really exciting,” Ajala told the club’s official website a few weeks ago. “In the first-team, they’ve got a lot of top players and it’s so important we get used to the tempo of how they play.

“For any Academy player, training more with the first team is an important step. Hopefully, I can make my first-team debut and try and score for the first-team.

“I just want to be involved with the first-team, I want to play with them. It’s all about playing at the highest level you can possibly play.”

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