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Mesh Number 2 on the shoulders, a sponsor named Zinedine Zidane. At the presentation press conference with Levante, Borja Mayoral – at just 21 years old – he looked like this: center forward wearing a defender’s jersey number, few goals scored in his career but so much quality that Zizou fell in love. After two seasons on loan to Rossoblù, the 1997 class is ready for a new experience in Italy: the Rome He chose him to complete the Fonseca attack, three days after the end of the market Borja arrived in the capital to start his new adventure.
Raised in the whites’ youth sector, he spent his first season as a loaned professional at Wolfsburg in 2016-2017, racking up a handful of starts as a starter and just two goals. “Maybe I’m not that strong”, says he thought of himself, disappointed by his performances in the Bundes after the record figures collected in the youth sector of the You meringues: one above all, that of the 14 goals scored in just 15 Youth League games. At 19 Borja was one of the most crystalline talents in the world.
However, despite the disappointing season, the turning point in Borja’s career came just at that moment. Back at Real after last year in Germany, Mayoral trained for a whole summer with CR7 and Sergio Ramos, hoping to find a team to marry to gain experience. A few days after the transfer market closed, Borja was still at La Real.
tweetNot that the offers weren’t there, or that he had turned them down. Zidane was simply asking for time. Because, after the transfer of Morata to Chelsea, Zizou was convinced that the new number 9 that would take Álvaro’s place already had it. And his name was Borja Mayoral.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Bale, Isco, Benzema, Asensio and… Borja Mayoral. Three years ago, this was Zidane’s strike group. Hearing his name pronounced alongside those of such champions, for Borja, was crazy. Son of a humble family – his father is a butcher, his mother a housewife – he joined the youth sector of Real Madrid after years with his neighborhood team, Fuentebella a Parla.
Before going to play, each time, Maria Isabèl, his mother, forced him to have his blood sugar level: since the age of 4, Mayoral suffers from diabetes. The desire to play soccer, however, was such that Borja learned from childhood to bite himself. When Mom wasn’t there, somehow it had to be done …
In the first team of the Real, Mayoral wanted to live a dream. When I was a kid, he had posters of Henry and Cristiano Ronaldo in his bedroom. Thanks to Zidane, CR7 ended up putting the ball at his feet helping him to score. In September 2017, with a magnificent right volley, he arrived for the first time with the Whites, in the League against Real Sociedad. A couple of months later, in the last game of the group, the first in Champions League against Borussia Dortmund.
However, the great competition in the department, together with the very high level of colleagues, did not help Mayoral find the space that, to gain experience and make the leap in quality, every 20-year-old would need. Thus, thanks to Zidane’s farewell and the start of a new era at the Bernabéu, in summer 2018 Borja looked for a new location. According to Real, the most welcome solution was the one offered by I raised, where the forward could have made a hole as a starter in order to gain experience with some appearances in the League.
Presented to the press, Mayoral surprised everyone by making the number 2 shirt his own. An unusual choice for a striker, but not innovative for the Levante fans: already in 2011-2012, Arouna Konè He decided to go out onto the field in that shirt. “I got number 2 just for him”, Mayoral explained. Not that Konè was his childhood idol, but the 15 goals the Ivorian scored six years ago made him think that number was good: “I want you to have as much fun as him.”
In the end, the goals scored in two seasons were 14 in 69 appearances: not exactly what is called a purebred bomber, more like a forward who always plays, because he knows how to get at the service of the team. Also at this start of the season, after returning to Real, he played two of the three games played by whites. If he has it available, Zidane doesn’t think twice before sending it. Who knows that Roma does not represent the right opportunity to score a lot and to break free even in the goal area. If Zidane believes so deeply, instead, there will be a reason …
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