Ivi López wants to be the third ‘Spanish king’ in Poland

The love story continues Ivy Lopez and Poland. Just five years ago, Raków played in the Third Division and did not even allow himself the luxury of dreaming of winning a title. Today, the Czestochowa club has a Cup and a Super Cup in its showcase and, in addition, is leading the Polish First Division (Ekstraklasa) with four dates remaining. All this with a stellar Ivi López who in November became Raków’s all-time top scorer in the elite and today Ekstraklasa’s ‘Pichichi’ is out with 17 goals. “I never would have imagined playing in Poland”, recognized Ivi López in AS last July. And there are times when success comes in ways you don’t expect.

“There is nothing impossible. We have seen worse things, like the Leicester Premier. Winning the League is not one of our goals, but last year we were runners-up and this season we want to fight for everything“, added Ivi in ​​July 2021, when the Ekstraklasa had not yet started rolling. Nine months later, Raków Czestochowa leads the championship and depends on himself to lift the first League in its history. To achieve this, he will have to defeat Górnik Leczna , Krakow, Zaglebie and Lechia. Along the way, Ivi López’s team will play a Cup final in which they will face Lech Poznan, their great rival for the Ekstraklasa. Raków has only held the lead twice this season and both have been after a victory with a goal by Ivi López.

In his first season in Poland, Ivi López scored 13 goals. in the second He has 18, to which must be added 12 assists (17 and seven in the League) in which he is one of the great favorites to win the Ekstraklasa MVP. If that were to happen, Ivi López would become the third Spaniard to win the award -the first was Carlitos López (2018), who was followed by Jorge Félix (2020)-, something that would confirm the return of a footballer who did not know how to exploit his arrival at the elite. “When you’re young and you get to a First Division club you think everything is done, but then you realize that football isn’t like that. If Levante signs you for four years you have to be more professional,” he acknowledged in AS. “I did things wrong, but I’ve realized it and now I’m ready for whatever comes”added the current best footballer in a competition in which Lewandowski, Blaszczykowski, Piatek or Milik exploded.