Pepe Mel had his signing for Espanyol approved

Despite its delicate classification, Pepe Mel's credit in Las Palmas seems to be far from exhausted. And he has earned it hard. The Madrilenian, a classic of the benches at 57 years old, receive this Sunday a Espanyol to whom he has been linked not only on occasion as a coach, but also he was about to sign in his stage as a footballer. Who knows if it would have marked an era as it did in its final destination, Betis.

At the beginning of summer 1989, and with the recently formalized relegation of Espanyol to Second, the Parakeet club was looking for the goal that it had not had the previous season (Michel Pineda, with five goals, had been its top scorer) and seemed to find the ideal candidate in Mel. At 26 years old, He came from going up with Castellón by scoring 21 goals. They were not mere cabals. The president, Ferran Martorell, was the first to contact him, so Espanyol took the lead and the attacker had already made up his mind that he would stop at Sarrià.

But the blue and white bench experienced an earthquake, with the dismissal of English Allan Harris even before having directed his first training session and the appointment of Benito Joanet, whom Mel had not quite convinced. His candidate was another, the Tenerife Andrés González, who had just scored 11 goals with Las Palmas. And he was the one who took the cat into the water.

Nobody at Espanyol came out of the decision well. While Martorell left the presidency after having called elections, Joanet was dismissed after 17 days and Andres went unnoticed for Espanyol without having scored a single goal throughout the season, in which he only played ten games, six as a starter, and 499 minutes; something tremendous failed because in Xerez, in the following season, he would score 17 goals.

The only winner was Mel, who ended up signing for Betis, with whom he also rose to First in this 1989-90 season and as the top scorer in Second, with 22 goals (To get an idea, the top director of the parakeet was Gabino Rodríguez, who did 12), at the beginning of an idyll that would turn the Verdiblanco in the club where he played the most as a professional and the one he has trained the most times. Now wait in front of Las Palmas. Who knows what would have happened if in that summer of 1989 he had landed in Sarrià.