The resurrection of Carlitos López

Charlie Brown López he is signing the best start of his sports career. The Alicante attacker, now in the historic Panathinaikos, has scored seven goals in the first six days of the Greek Super League. Some numbers that he did not achieve in Eldense, in the Villarreal subsidiary or in Wisla Krakow, where he completed an excellent season -24 goals and seven assists- that served him to be elected best player of the Ekstraklasa. In Greece, Carlitos was being discussed by the press and fans. No one would have been surprised if he had changed his scene last summer. However, the arrival of Ivan Jovanovic changed his trajectory as ‘green’: the Serbian coach delayed his position – from forward to playmaker – and the result is one of those players for whom it is worth paying a ticket.

In his first season wearing the Panathinaikos jersey, Carlitos López scored six goals in 34 games. This season, the Spaniard has only needed six games to pulverize his best records in Greek football. “It was an opportunity that we could not miss,” acknowledged Xavi Roca after completing the signing of Carlitos by Panathinaikos. The Catalan sports director, now at AEK Larnaca, signed the Alicante footballer in January 2020, even knowing that it would take more than six months to debut because that season he had already worn the shirts of two clubs -Legia de Warsaw and Al Wahda-, the maximum imposed by FIFA.

Against Ionikos, Carlitos López scored his first hat-trick since March 2018, when he scored three goals in Wisla Krakow’s 3-1 victory over Slask Wroclaw in the Polish First Division. At the start of his second season wearing the Panathinaikos shirt, the Alicante player not only has seven goals; He has also given an assist and caused a penalty. Total, Carlitos has participated in nine of the 13 goals for Panathinaikos in a competition, the Super League, in which he is fifth thanks to the 10 points he has collected in the first six days. His scoring figures could be higher, but the Spanish already He has renounced taking two penalties – he is in charge of taking them – with the aim that two of his teammates, Mateus Vital and Sebastian Palacios, release their scoring accounts.

In summer, Carlitos López had a foot and a half outside Panathinaikos and now he is not only the best player of the ‘green’, but he has emerged as one of the most decisive footballers in the Greek First Division, whose table of top scorers leads with two more goals than van Weert, the Dutch striker from Volos. The Alicante you have already heard the first siren songs from Spain and the fans of Apostolos Nikolaidis begin to have nightmares with the possibility of losing their star. Carlitos, however, has no intention of putting an end to his time at Panathinaikos, where he has a great contract and the confidence of his coach, Ivan Jovanovic. At this rate, the Spaniard will break all records.