As he pieces together his colourful career, speaking in an empty dressing room at West Bromwich Albion’s training ground, Salomón Rondón comes across as such a genial, easy-going man. Yet there is a moment halfway through the interview when the mood shifts and that warm smile disappears from his face, as Rondón tells the extraordinary story of how Venezuela’s most famous footballer has to be smuggled in and out of his family home in Caracas to protect the lives of those closest to him.

It is a sobering tale that makes all the earlier talk about trying to adapt to the pace and pressure of the Premier League, the stress of scoring goals and running the channels almost to the point of exhaustion, seem so insignificant. This is a man who is unable to walk hand in hand with his wife and children in the city where he grew up.

Rondón was raised in Catia, in the west of Venezuela’s capital, and his football success is a source of great pride to his family, yet every journey home provides a reminder that fame and fortune have come at a cost. Venezuela’s capital is a dangerous and chaotic city, with one of the highest murder rates in the world, in a country in the midst of an economic meltdown, and it is no place for a £12m footballer to be out and about with his family. Kidnapping and extortion are everyday threats and Rondón, with his wealth and status, knows he would be an easy target.

“Life in Caracas is not life. It is an uncertainty that follows you, that one day will kill you, that you will leave for work and not be able to come back,” he says. “I lived in Caracas but as a player I never played there. I played in a city nearby. It allowed me chance to breathe. The city is chaos. It is worse now. When I lived there, it was not so bad. You cannot live there now. My family are there and I worry about them. I speak to them every day, to make sure they are OK. I am always watching the news on Twitter, waiting to see what has happened.

I don't want anyone to know who my wife is. There's a risk of danger, of kidnappers. I don't want to run that risk

“But I never mix my family with my work. Very few people know who my family are. I try, as much as possible, that they are not seen with me – not at all in Venezuela. It is very hard, a massive sacrifice. If I am with them, it is always at home. We never go out. I have to hide as I go in. I try not to draw any attention to myself at all when I am there. My family are proud of what I am and I help them however I can, but I prefer to have them alive and to make this sacrifice. My children and my wife – I do not want anyone to know who she is. There is a risk of danger, a risk of kidnappers. I do not want to run that risk.”

Looking back to his childhood in Catia, Rondón realises he was among the lucky ones. He remembers “poor people, humble people, people who were struggling” and, in the same breath, acknowledges how different life was for him because of the middle-class upbringing his mother and his father, who was a chemistry professor in a military school, were able to provide. “I was a kid who wanted for nothing thanks to my family,” he says.

While Rondón politely says he would prefer not to wade into a subject “as deep” as the complex political scene back home, where public anger is high because of shortages of food and medical supplies, and inflation spiralled to 141% in January, the 26-year-old is not afraid to speak his mind on other subjects, in particular the Venezuelan Football Federation.

Rafael Esquivel, its former president, was arrested in Zurich during a police swoop before Fifa’s congress last May, after being accused of receiving bribes worth millions of dollars in connection with the sale of marketing rights to the Copa América tournaments.

Yet the sight of Esquivel, who has denied any wrongdoing, being led away was not enough for Rondón and his team-mates. Fifteen Venezuela players, including Rondón, issued a statement in December warning they would refuse to play in the remainder of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers unless national coaches and federation officials were replaced.

In the end Rondón decided to return to South America during this latest international break to play against Peru and Chile “because it is my country, something I have dreamed of, loved, cried, wanted all my life”, yet it is clear he has no time whatsoever for those in power.

“I maintain my position that the board of the federation should resign,” Rondón says. “I keep on saying that the people who direct our football have done a lot of damage in every way. Football should be one of the beautiful things about our country. But there are things that have not been managed well on the part of the federation. One of the representatives is in the US on charges of corruption. I think there has to be change.

“I do not have power but I am someone who can give a message. But until this point, players cannot change the federation. We have a golden generation in Venezuela. We have never had so many players abroad, 25 or 30. It is a record, something historic. We are the motor for change for a federation that has done so much damage to our football.”

Unlike most South American countries, football is not the No1 sport in Venezuela, with baseball and basketball more popular. Rondón is a big basketball fan and as a child idolised Michael Jordan, which is why he likes to wear the No23 shirt (much to his disappointment, Gareth McAuley had beaten him to it at West Bromwich). He makes the point, twice, that he was “very good” at the sport and says there was a moment when he gave serious consideration to “not playing football any more and dedicating myself to basketball”.

By that stage, however, Rondón was showing plenty of promise on the pitch and had the chance to turn professional with Aragua. After impressing in the Venezuela Primera División, he signed for Las Palmas, in Spain, before his 20th birthday and was soon on his way to Málaga, where he played under Manuel Pellegrini and finished as the top scorer in each of his two seasons at the club, helping them to finish fourth in La Liga in 2012.

Two big-money moves to Russian clubs followed, first to Rubin Kazan and then, in early 2014, to Zenit St Petersburg, which had the potential to be tricky before a ball had been kicked. Rondón was the first black player to sign for them since Landscrona, Zenit’s largest supporters’ club, released a manifesto at the end of 2012 demanding an all-white, heterosexual team.

“It was very complicated,” Rondón says, reflecting on the situation he walked into at Zenit. “It is one of the biggest clubs in Russia and the fans want Russian attackers. There were some who would chant ‘monkey’ at me, they would sing songs with whatever insults in them. These are things that happen and it is better not to lend them too much importance. If you think about them, if you let them hurt you, they affect you. It is difficult not to hear them. But I did not want to give [the people abusing me] the importance that they crave, because they strike me as lacking in conscience, in knowledge. I am very happy with my colour, very proud of my colour. For me, it is better. I don’t get burned in the sun.”

André Villas-Boas was appointed at Zenit not long after Rondón signed and it is interesting to hear the striker’s thoughts on playing under the former Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur manager, as well as under Pellegrini at Málaga, and how the two compare with Tony Pulis.

This winner against Manchester United is one of the memorable contributions from a season that has seen plenty of adjustment required from Rondón. Photograph: Rui Vieira/AP

“Pellegrini had a very simple way of playing,” Rondón says. “The wingers were to stay wide, on the flanks, and he wanted his striker always in the area. With AVB it was exactly the same. Zenit are a big team in Russia and from game to game, whether it is in Europe or domestic, the fans of the club demand that you are playing in this way. You have to be on the ball, coming out of the area to join in play, making runs into the area.

“Here, with Pulis, is different, more than anything because you are often running into space to try to disrupt the defensive line. You touch the ball less in favour of creating more space. I have to get used to this strategy. It is a different job to what went before. I feel good in it now. In the one or two occasions of scoring that you get, you have to take them.”

At a touch over 6ft tall and weighing 85kg (13.4st), Rondón is a powerful man, as he demonstrated when he outmuscled Robert Huth to open the scoring in the recent 2-2 draw at Leicester. That was one of four goals Rondón has scored in his past seven Premier League appearances, including the winner against Manchester United, which suggests things are starting to click after a slow start.

Rondón is the first to admit it has not been easy adjusting to the relentlessness of the English game since his club-record move from Zenit in August, and at one stage he underwent blood tests because West Brom were concerned he may be suffering from exhaustion.

“They said I was tired,” Rondón says. “It was playing lots of games in a row, in lots of different competitions, running hard, and then there was the stress of not scoring goals too – not having the chance to score. We have a nutritionist and she helped me make sure I was eating the right things – an athlete has to eat perfectly. But the stress of not scoring goals, all of the running, and all of those games in a row – and the long journeys from the international break, 14 or 15 hours – that was making me tired.”

Rondón, to be clear, is not complaining; he is not that sort of character. He looks and sounds like a man determined to embrace his life in England and to be a success, not only for himself, the club and their supporters, but also for the people in Venezuela, who could do with a chink of light in their lives. “Football is one of the few happinesses they have,” he says.