BarcelonaCatalonia only contributes 6% of the 604 goals that have been scored during the first 25 days of the League. The goal remains a pending mission in a territory that has produced period goalkeepers, hierarchy centrals and great orchestra conductors in the middle of the field. Of lethal strikers, however, very few. This is proven by a fact: only four of the top 100 scorers in the history of the League are Catalan: Raúl Tamudo (146), Joaquín Murillo (131), Josep Juncosa (114) and Gerard Moreno (107).
That three of them have trained at Espanyol is no coincidence, but the result of years of work and trust in the squad: from Pitus Prat to Jonathan Soriano, through Corominas or Puado. Barça’s commitment to searching for the world’s best strikers away from home in recent decades has turned the white-and-blue club into the main springboard for Catalan attackers. Throughout the 21st century, the Blaugrana club has only had the top Catalan goalscorer in the category on three occasions: Bojan Krkic twice and Xavi Hernández once.
Celta de Vigo, Espanyol’s opponent this Saturday (6.30 p.m., M. LaLiga), lives in Galicia in a situation similar to that of the white-and-blue club. Deportivo’s descent into hell has turned the Vigo club into the main elite showcase for the region’s top scorers. Joselu, Iago Aspas, Borja Iglesias, Gabri Veiga and Brais Méndez, who have accumulated 50 goals, have trained there. The first two celebrate the recent call-up with the Spanish national team at the RCDE Stadium. A situation diametrically opposed to that experienced by another Galician, Denis Suárez, who seeks in Cornellà-El Prat to forget the ostracism he experienced in Vigo due to the punishment of the president of Celta.
The difficulty of finding and training good forwards
“Apart from the generational factor, the forward position is the most difficult to find. In addition, we ask them more and more things: that they go well in space, that they play from their backs to the goal and go down to receive the ball, that they keep it and that they also finish in the area”, explain sources from the squad of the Spanish As it happens at adult ages, the lower categories are increasingly exposed to the constant movement of players, not only between clubs in the same community, but also from the rest of the State or abroad. “The catchment areas are working better and have more money. Real Madrid has signed Iker Bravo from Sant Cugat, on loan from Bayer Leverkusen, for the subsidiary, and Alvaro Rodríguez from Palamos, who has already scored a goal, has already given minutes to the first team. Catalonia generates, above all, second strikers, such as Melendo, but lacks strikers with goals. In the elite, today, there are only Gerard Moreno and Ferran Jutglà”, they add from the Spanish youth.
Espanyol could not retain the former, who accumulated eight seasons as the top Catalan scorer in the Primera Division, one less than the nine that Tamudo signed between 1999 and 2007, and did not give the latter a chance: “If we didn’t give him money or a card with the first team, he was leaving. In his last year he had shown a medium-low performance”, he adds.
“If you are not decisive, the clubs will not want you. There is a lack of patience with young people, who sometimes do not make the change until they are 20 or 22 years old. Sometimes they need to find the right coach, other times the maturing and biological process they follow is different”, points out another person linked to Valencia grassroots football. Two strikers who have stood out at more mature ages in the Primera División passed through Paterna without success: Borja Iglesias and Rafa Mir. Now, at Espanyol, they are asking for patience with Puado, the player who accumulates the most sticks in this League, six, and with the strikers who are forging in the lower categories. “There are forwards with many abilities, but they must be patient, not go crazy and see the way that Espanyol has.”
