De la Cruz has his uses as he gives hometown running water

Published on Saturday 24 June 2006 01:09

ULISES de la Cruz has spent this week plotting how to stop Wayne Rooney as the Ecuador wing-back prepares for the biggest game of his life against England in Stuttgart tomorrow.

The 32-year-old, still on the books but facing an uncertain future at Aston Villa, even suggested tongue-in-cheek that he might give the English talisman's "foot a kick to test it out".

De la Cruz will hope that he does not have to resort to such extreme measures to halt Rooney in the last-16 clash, and is confident his experience in the English Premiership will stand him in good stead against some familiar faces.

The stocky Ecuadorean has played in Britain for the past five years, since Alex McLeish made him Hibs' record signing in 2001 when he paid 700,000 to sign him from Deportivo Universitaria.

He earned himself a place in Hibs folklore by scoring a first-half derby double against Hearts in October 2001, but the enigmatic style of play which led to him being labelled cruelly "Useless De la Cruz" by some critics at Easter Road has followed him to Villa Park since he joined the Midlands club in a 1.5million deal in July 2002, and he has struggled to hold down a regular place in David O'Leary's side.

His limited supply of first-team football led to him handing in a transfer request towards the end of last season, as he feared his place in Ecuador's World Cup squad would be in jeopardy. He needn't have worried.

De la Cruz is a linchpin in Luis Fernando Suarez's team, and was a stand-out performer at the 2002 World Cup in the Far East - where he first caught the eye of the then-Villa manager Graham Taylor.

He has now racked up nearly 90 caps, and is an icon in his homeland.

De la Cruz donates 20 per cent of his 15,000-a-week wages to charity and in the past five years he has been responsible for installing running water and electricity as well as the construction of a school and hospital in the small town of Piquincho, where he grew up.

"It's true that I am a celebrity in Ecuador, but the town I come from only has 3,000 inhabitants," said De la Cruz. "Everybody knows each other from birth so I never forget what my origins are. When I go back there, I'm just the same person I always was.

"When I was growing up I didn't have a great deal - there was no running water, we didn't have money for the electricity and the education system was not well organised. But because I was good at football I was given the opportunity to progress and that has brought me a life I could not have hoped for in Ecuador. Because the facilities in my home village were not very good I decided to set up a foundation."

De la Cruz's generosity earned him praise yesterday from the Ecuador Embassy. "He gives a lot of his salary to the foundation to help the development of the children in the village," said Consulate General Jorge Icaca. "It is wonderful they have not forgotten their roots. The children treat them as heroes."

It begs the question: if De la Cruz goes into the England game a hero already, what will that make him if he shackles Rooney and helps earn his side a place in the quarter-finals of the World Cup?