Santander League: Enric Gallego, a veteran goal nomad to forget the misfortune of Chimy | LaLiga Santander 2019

The forward has been transferred three times in the last year, the last one to Osasuna, for a minimum of 11 million euros

When the left knee of Chimy vila broke, a collective tremor ran through the body of the almost 15,000 Osasuna fans who had gathered in El Sadar to see their team's match against Levante. The reds won, but that was a night of sadness and worry. He had broken the soul of the team, the icon of the style with which the Navarrese team is impressing on his return to Primera and the team's scorer with 11 goals in 22 games, numbers typical of a top striker of the competition.

The football drama needed a quick and convincing solution from the sports management. And so it was. Four days after Chimy fell out of favor, the Navarrese team announced the hiring of Enric Gallego (Barcelona, ​​1986). The chosen formula was a cessation with the option of compulsory purchase in case of permanence of two million euros that, depending on various objectives, could end up being five.

Gallego's history is well known. He was albail and truck driver while playing in lower divisions until at the age of 31 he managed to debut in Second with the Estremadura. But as surprising or more than that part of his career is the one he has developed since then. Being a pichichi of Segunda, Huesca came to him as the last hope in the face of an almost inevitable descent that ended up being consummated. Two million euros disbursed the Aragonese team in January 2019 for a player who, precisely together with Chimy, managed to have Huesca at least say goodbye to Primera with dignity.

After the descent, the club from Salamanca had him as a reference for his new project, but it had cost him so much to reach First that Gallego was not willing to miss the opportunity. The Getafe knocked on his door and, given Huesca's refusal to negotiate, he ended up paying his six million euros rescission clause. The competition with angel, Molina Y Bush, however, I left him practically without minutes. In fact, he failed to score a single goal in his few months at the Coliseum, where he only participated in five games. And there, Osasuna went to incorporate him into his project.

200,000 euros to Cornell

In total, Enric Gallego has played in four different teams the last thirteen months. If Osasuna is saved, as it is except debacle, it will have generated a minimum of 11 million euros in three transfers in just a year and a half. A quantity, written remains, that can be shot up to 14 kilos. In the rest of his sports career, he had barely generated 200,000 euros, those who paid Extremadura to Cornell in January 2018.

The challenge of Gallego now, with 33 years, is to adapt to a style of play that, a priori, does not benefit you excessively. Or, looked at differently, the work of Raze is to introduce nuances in his Osasuna so that his new but veteran striker shines. After debuting last week against Villarreal, today a key piece is presumed in the attempt of the Navarrese team to surprise Madrid in El Sadar.