The question surprised the journalist that September 2018, when Borja Iglesias, after triumphing in Second with Zaragoza, suddenly became the most expensive player (10 million euros) in the history of Espanyol: «And this interview when comes out?". A year later, the blue and white club has proceeded to execute its largest sales operation ever thanks to the 28.14 million euros that Betis will pay for the contracting of the ram. Signature until June 30, 2024.

The ego of the show business and the show business was impossible to notice in a soccer player who dealt with the same generosity and respect for the reporter and the props, the coach and the fan. As if he still looked at the sport with the child's eyes. The same one who spent the morning with his parents at the airport of Santiago waiting for the teams returning from Riazor or Balaído to stop signing autographs before taking the night flights.

Borja Iglesias (Santiago de Compostela, 1993), who at age 14 left his home to start earning a living in the quarries of Valencia and Villarreal, did not take hold in Primera until he was 25 years old. With 24 already completed he was still scoring goals at the Municipal de Guijuelo or El Montecillo de Arandina . He did it by commanding the Celta B attack, with which he scored 34 goals in 39 games in the 2016-2017 season. Then he was proclaimed top scorer of the entire Second B.

The 'Panda Team'

It was part of the so-called Panda Team . The bear made a fortune thanks to a verse from rapper Desiigner. After getting the animal tattooed on the skin of several of those players -Borja has it drawn on the right ankle-, it became the personal mark of the striker. In Cornellà stuffed animals abounded and there were those who proceeded to disguise themselves as a panda, whether it was cold or hot, to encourage a footballer who also knows and admits his sentence: the wandering culture .

When he signed for Espanyol, Borja Iglesias' agents tried to make his termination clause allow a departure only 12 months later. The entity chaired by toy businessman Chen Yansheng accepted the condition given that they were confident that the forward would revalue, as it was. So much so that the Galician striker, after a season in which he scored 20 goals in 43 games (17 of them in the League, the second Spanish scorer after Iago Aspas) , starred in one of those images that will remain forever in the blue and white imaginary . The afternoon in which Espanyol achieved access to Europe 12 years later after the triumph at home against Real Sociedad, Borja Iglesias was engulfed by fans who stormed the pitch. On the shoulders, the Galician was in underpants, proud to be part of the tide.

Until the last day, the stands of the RCDE Stadium called for the impossible continuity of Borja Iglesias, who is leaving Espanyol leaving three more goals in the Europa League, against Iceland's Stjarnan.

Rubi's demand

It is now up to Espanyol to find a relay, beyond the gap that Facundo Ferreyra can fill in the offensive front , and reinvest what has been entered. Rastar Group, the Chinese conglomerate owner of the blue and white entity, detailed the operation: Betis undertakes an immediate payment of 18.14 million, five more will pay them before December 23, and the last five before June 1, 2020 The Espanyol, meanwhile, will pay 5% of the total amount to Celta, club of origin of the battering ram.

The signing of Borja Iglesias thus meets one of the great demands of Joan Francesc Ferrer, Rubi . For the Catalan coach Betis also paid the termination clause (900,000 euros) to a Espanyol in search of new references in his European way. This Thursday, the team led by David Gallego faces the Swiss Lucerne in Cornellà in the return of the third round of the Europa League after the first leg (0-3). Football never gives time for regret.

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