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Granada CF were in need of a midseason spark after a precarious season fighting to stay in the premier Spanish La Liga soccer league for their entire 2015-16 campaign.
A return to Spain’s second division, the Liga Adelante, became a realistic possibility thanks to their rocky beginning to the 85th edition of Spain's outstanding league.
Granada were mired in the relegation zone and were getting subpar seasons from stars Fran Rico and Ruben Rochina. Manager Jose Ramon Sandoval knew that many players on his team would have to step up going into their Matchday 15 encounter with Levante, another struggling team in Valencia.
In a crucial contest on the road, the Andalusian club needed inspiration from somewhere. Amazingly enough, Granada received just that in a tremendous display from an unlikely source: an 18-year-old from El Vigia, Venezuela.
In just his fourth start, Adalberto Peñaranda announced himself in emphatic fashion to the soccer world with a top-class two-goal performance, giving Granada a 2-1 road win that helped ignite their long, slow ride to survival.
It was an eye-catching break-out match for the young man, showcasing all the attributes found in world-class forwards: pace, skill, confidence, ambition and a calm, deadly finish to boot
The precocious Peñaranda has suddenly emerged as a name talked about throughout the Spanish soccer world, with many feeling his star-making exhibition was the first of many to come in his burgeoning career. A career that a year ago seemed like it would never happen.
On April 19, 2015, Peñaranda was still a valued commodity of his first club Deportivo La Guaira. While at a party that night with teammate Charlys Ortiz, Peñaranda was enjoying a normal evening when major trouble began.
The prodigy suffered a gunshot to his left thigh at the party, with Ortiz receiving the worst of the incident having wounds to his arm and his rib section that required surgery.
Fortunately for Peñaranda, it was his only injury in a situation that could have resulted in not only his career ending before it even started, but his life being taken away so young. The ultimate adversity—facing death and overcoming it—is a thing only few on Earth will deal with in their lives, and Peñaranda can certainly lay claim to having faced that.
It is why the thoughts of playing in arguably the best league in the world—in the middle of a relegation fight with little professional experience—did not faze him at all. Instead, it only motivated Peñaranda to continue being a proud, young Venezuelan desperate to make a major impact on the world stage.
Although he wasn’t able to surpass his Man-of-the-match performance against Levante, Peñaranda still played a vital role in Granada remaining in La Liga.
His alacrity to make intelligent runs and his boundless energy led to his scoring three more goals on the season and provided much needed space for Moroccan striker Youssel El Arabi to take back the goal-scoring mantle.
Although Granada manager Sandoval was fired and replaced with Jose Gonzalez, Peñaranda’s steady quality was a breath of fresh air for Granada fans frustrated by the promising teenager Isaac Success’ inconsistent performances and poor finishing.
With his commendable first season in European soccer, Peñaranda has been rewarded with a transfer move to Granada’s sister club Watford of the English Premier League, both clubs are owned by the Italian Pizzo family.
Although manager Quique Sanchez Flores’ departure has again left the Watford club with some instability, Peñaranda will get a chance under new boss Walter Mazzarri to certify his place as one of the sport’s next superstars.
It is an opportunity where he has all to gain and not much to lose, just like his season at Grenada.
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And for his country, Peñaranda truly has a chance to become his nation’s first major, global superstar player. Although the left-footed free-kick ace Juan Arango is a force to be reckoned with in many countries, and lead striker Salomon Rondon is still quite the handful to deal with, neither of those two have ever burst onto the scene at such a tender age in such a great league like Peñaranda did.
Along with 22-year-old adroit Malaga winger Juan Pablo “Juanpi” Añor, Peñaranda can certainly lead Venezuela to heights that even the great Juan Arango could never lead his nation to: a World Cup and global soccer respect for a nation still deeply in love with baseball.
Venezuela has shown their qualities at the Copa America Centenario with two terrific wins over Jamaica and Uruguay to clinch their place in the quarterfinals, even though they have had a tough, unlucky start to their current phase of World Cup qualifying.
Although he has been coming off the bench for manager Rafael Dudamel at the Copa America, do not be surprised if Peñaranda leaves his mark on the tournament before its conclusion.
For a country going through some tough times due to the economic oil crisis, and for a soccer program long mired in the shadows of baseball.
Peñaranda has all the qualities to bring much needed joy both on and off the field to the proud Venezuelan nation.
Just like the prodigy already has done for the Grenada fans.
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