Borré: the hero of the final was a ‘ghost signing’ from Atleti

Rafael Santos Borré left Colombia very high by becoming the star of Eintracht Frankfurt who lifted the Europa League against Rangers at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán. The striker from Barranquilla tied the match in the 69th minute and then sent the fifth and decisive penalty of the shootout to the squad that proclaimed champion of this title to the German team for the second time in its history.

Santos Borré has not yet turned 27 but it seems that decades have passed since Atlético de Madrid signed him in 2015 from Deportivo Cali, something that does not appear in some statistics books simply because he did not make his debut in an official match with Diego Simeone’s team. A few minutes in a pre-season match against Numancia and a complete match, a friendly also in the Australian antipodes, is all that Borré played as a rojiblanco before joining Villarreal on loan in August 2016.

He was not a regular in the Yellow Submarine and River Plate he rescued him again for the other side of the Atlantic by acquiring half of his pass for around 3.5 million euros in the summer (in Argentina, winter) of 2017. Atlético kept its percentage of the footballer for several years but in June 2021 Borré was released and caught by Eintracht, who became champion of a European tournament 42 years later.

In addition to scoring in Nervión, the coffee grower made him goals in this edition of the Europa League against Olympiacos, Barcelona and West Ham, most of them crucial in the eliminations of the German team. In the Bundesliga he has scored eight goals and provided six assists. His market value, according to Transfermarkt, is 17 million euros. And to think that Atlético didn’t even make him debut…