For the first time in recent years, the choice of the best Ekstraklasa player (Polish First Division) fell to the footballers themselves, who decided to crown the Piast Gliwice player George Felix (Madrid, 1991). Since his arrival in Poland, the Spanish playmaker has continued to triumph: last year he conquered the championship with Piast Gliwice and, as a colophon, was chosen as the best foreigner in the tournament. “It is a great satisfaction that my colleagues and rivals have chosen me the best player”, Jorge Félix discovers already from Madrid, where he has just started his summer vacation. By the way, he voted for Jesús Jiménez, with whom he coincided in Alcorcón: “If it were not for him and Igor Angulo, Górnik Zabrze would have suffered a lot.”
In fact, the fact that journalists continued to choose the best player by position and it was the footballers who chose the best player led to: For the first time in history, the most important individual award will not go to the best of his position. “It doesn't make sense,” said Jorge Félix, who did not expect the award: “I thought he would be won by a league champion, but this year the vote was different. I like it better that way.” However, its reward is more than deserved: Jorge Félix scored 16 league goals, or what is the same, 40% of the goals that Piast Gliwice achieved at Ekstraklasa. Adding goals and assists, the Madrid player participated in 50% of his team's goals: “This year I had more confidence and I felt more adapted to the club and the competition. The change of position has also been essential. Last year I played as far left and this year I acted as playmaker. That's where I can best develop my qualities “
With Jorge Félix, who Domagoj Antolic (Legia of Warsaw) and Christian Gytkjaer (Lech Poznan) prevailed in the voting, there are already three consecutive seasons in which a Spanish has become the best player in the Ekstraklasa. In 2018 Carlitos López (Wisla Krakow) did it and in 2019 it was the turn of Joel Valencia (Piast Gliwice), now in Panathinaikos and Brentford respectively. “We Spaniards are highly regarded in Poland. We feel valued and that makes us play better. It is a very nice link“says Jorge Félix, who has already finished his stage at the Piast Gliwice: “It is very difficult for me to continue. I will be eternally grateful to them because they have made me known in Europe and I have grown a lot personally and footballically”.
Jorge Félix, during a Piast Gliwice match.
Irek Dorozanski – Piast Gliwice (Twitter)
After two years at the Polish club, Jorge Félix believes that “it is time to achieve a better future for my family”. The Spaniard handles more than twenty offers and confesses to being “tired” of receiving so many proposals: “At the moment I have not signed anything. I am waiting for something to come that I am excited about and, above all, it is beneficial for the future of my family Poland, another place in Europe, another continent … I have nothing to tie me, so I can venture and go to any country. ” The Legia of Warsaw has already shown its interest, but the Spanish has received calls from other countries such as the United States, South Korea or Australia: “I am delighted that they called me from Australia. That they notice me, that I am on the other side of the world, it seems incredible to me. It must be a great place to live”.
“Every failure is an opportunity”
Soccer was never the only love of Jorge Félix. Graduated in Economics and with two master's degrees -Accounting and Financial Advisor-, the Madrid midfielder was close to leaving the sport when he applied for a scholarship AFI (International Financial Analysts). “It would have been a very good job, but thank God they didn't catch me”, the footballer himself acknowledged in an interview published last February in AS. As he himself admits, “every failure is an opportunity” and that 'no' allowed him to continue playing soccer. Today he succeeds in Poland and, although he does not know what his next destination will be, he does know where his future is: “My goal is to be a Tax Technician. I will start studying the exams when I have a few years of football left”.