Borja Iglesias and Gerard Moreno: Espanyol, destined for a springboard

Fifth club that has played the most games in the First Division, founder of LaLiga and historically ranked seventh, Espanyol’s role in Spanish football has been diminishing as its economy has improved, paradoxically. And not only because of the recent complaints about arbitrations that fall on deaf ears, because of the relegation of two seasons ago, quickly corrected, or because of the absence of titles since 2006 – he was already able to resist 40 years without any, and yet in that period came to aspire to the League. Two fashionable players exemplify the role played by Espanyol in the new football order.

They are in the mouth of every follower Gerard Moreno and Borja Iglesiasthe first due to the imminent Champions League semi-final between Villarreal and Liverpool, and the second, for his decisive performance in the King’s Cup FinalBetis-Valencia, with one goal and the MVP trophy. Players of undeniable success, leaders of their teams, were the last two scorers for Espanyol until the arrival of Raúl de Tomás. And yet they had to and wanted to make a living away from the RCDE Stadium to aspire to something more. So as not to stay in the middle. Espanyol went from being a destination club in the elite to a sparringa springboard to the very first level. It is not an end, but a means.

These are two very different cases, hence its validity. Gerard Moreno is the perfect parakeet prototype, also confessed, raised in Sant Adrià, with Raúl Tamudo as an idol, champion in Brunete and Arona with the Espanyol alevín, who after going around Badalona, ​​Mallorca and Villarreal returns home. What’s up? 39 goals in 118 matches, including Barcelona, ​​archenemy, and Real Madrid. But that three years after landing he returns to the Submarine, and not only because his home club paid the 20 million of his half of the termination clause.

Operation economically impeccable for Espanyol, who had invested 1.5 million in his signing. But sentimentally and sportingly disastrous, as has been verified. And why would Gerard Moreno want to leave Espanyol? Maybe their ranked roadmap will give a clue. With Espanyol it was thirteenth (and Cup semi-finalist), eighth and eleventh. With Villarreal, fourteenth (and in the quarterfinals of the Europa League), fifth, seventh and champion of the Europa Leaguey currently seventh and in Champions semifinals. And he’s a standout international with the Spanish National Teama privilege that he did not achieve as a Blue and White.

As for the ‘Panda‘, he had no emotional ties with Espanyol when he arrived, after paying ten million to Celta, in the summer of 2018 as a substitute for Gerard. And in a very short time he won over the fans as best a forward can do, with goals, up to 23 in 46 official matches. He left Cornellà on his shoulders that May 18, 2019 when the team got into Europe, and through the back door just three months later, despite having collaborated in the three phases before Espanyol was in the league. After his departure, another round deal because Betis paid 28 million, the parakeet debacle arrived.

From seventh Borja Iglesias became fifteenth with Betisbut last season it already reached the sixth place in the league. And this season, in addition to having reached the knockout stages of the Europa League (against the already famous Eintracht Frankfurt), He is fifth and has just been proclaimed champion of the Copa del Rey. The same competition that made him think “I have to play for this team” when he, still a parakeet, he played it at Villamarín. For statements of this type, or for the celebration of any of his goals, the popularity of Galician among the perica social mass is far from being idyllicBut that is another business.

“Yes we will not have to sell more players for economic needs“, he proclaimed Chen Yansheng in his inauguration as president and owner of Espanyol, on January 21, 2016. And perhaps he was right, although heThe transfers continue to be budgeted years later to balance the balances. But the matter is not merely financial.

The aspirations of the parakeet club, its project, they attract big players but they don’t catch them. Mark Rock (Champion of the Bundesliga and Club World Cup), Joan Jordan (expelled from Espanyol and who won the Europa League 2019-20) or Beautiful Mario (current League champion) are, in Bayern Munich, Seville or Atlético de Madrid, some more examples of this problem led by Gerard Moreno and Borja Iglesias, and that not a few already fear that it could be repeated with Raúl de Tomás, who in two and a half years at the RCDE Stadium has experienced all the options: bottom, Second Division champion and ‘top scorer’, and thirteenth, with no chance of going down or finishing in Europe. What will be next?