West Ham United winger Crysencio Summerville became the sixth member of a very exclusive club when he cut inside and curled into the bottom corner during the Netherlands’ 2-2 World Cup thriller with Japan.
On what was only his third cap for the senior Oranje side, Summerville channeled Dutch legend Arjen Robben in the dry heat of Dallas.
West Ham United’s number seven cut inside onto his supposedly weaker left boot and angled a laser-guided finish into the far side of the Japanese goal.
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In doing so, Crysencio Summerville became only the sixth player to score a World Cup goal while contracted to the Hammers.
West Ham United winger Crysencio Summerville opens his World Cup account
Geoff Hurst, the hat-trick hero of 1966, famously scored five times for England on the biggest stage. Martin Peters would join Hurst on the scoresheet during that 4-2 victory over West Germany [check’s notes] 60 years ago.
Huh, someone call Skinner and Baddiel. Their lyrics need some updating.
Javier Hernandez, Matthew Upson and Lucas Paqueta scored for Mexico, England and Brazil while still West Ham players. Summerville now joins the a quintet of former claret-and-blue representatives in the World Cup history books.
Carlos Tevez netted three times on the biggest stage for Argentina. Jermain Defoe, Joe Cole and Jesse Lingard scored for England under Fabio Capello, Sven Goren Eriksson and Gareth Southgate respectively. Winston Reid has one World Cup goal for New Zealand. Ditto, Freddie Ljungberg for Sweden.
While Croatian legend Davor Suker flopped at West Ham, he arrived from Arsenal as the reigning World Cup Golden Boot holder. Evergreen Ecuadorian Enner Valencia has six spread across three tournaments. At 37, he is still leading the line for La Tri in big old 2026.
Valencia would join West Ham in 2014, shortly after bursting onto the scene at the tournament in Brazil. He, Tevez, Defoe, Cole, Lingard and co were not technically West Ham players when scoring on the biggest of stages.
Therefore, this makes the achievements of Summerville, Hernandez, Upson, Paqueta, Peters and Hurst that little bit more unique.
Cry joins a very exclusive club! But who is YOUR pick to be the World Cup’s top scorer?
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Summerville credits Dutch legend Ruud van Nistelrooy
Should the Rotterdam-born wideman hit the target again – the Netherlands will face Sweden on Saturday and Tunisia next Friday – he will join the immortal Hurst as the only player to score World Cup goals [plural] while contracted to West Ham.
“I just thought about how we’ve been training,” Summerville told NOS when reflecting on his fine finish on matchday one. “That’s why I ran to Ruud van Nistelrooy.”
Summerville made a beeline for Van Nistelrooy; the Manchester United great who now works as an assistant coach to Ronald Koeman.
“We work very closely on my finishing. [Ruud] gave me advice, so I had promised him that if I scored I would come over to him to say thank you. He is a top striker from whom I can learn a whole lot.”
With Cody Gakpo firmly established on the left, Summerville had to adapt to a less-familiar right-sided role in order to force his way into Koeman’s XI.
“It doesn’t really matter to me which side I play on, as you can see. But [Ruud] just gave me advice on certain things. I am happy about that, to work so closely with the coach.”
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