Diogo Jota, the current Liverpool player, has been one of the big mistakes made by the Atlético de Madrid sports management in recent years. The one who is now one of the stars of the team led by Jürgen Klopp came to belong to the rojiblanco team, but did not wear the mattress elastic in any official match. He was uncovered as a great scorer at Wolverhampton and since his arrival at Anfield he has become a vital piece of the attacking trident of the networkswhich seemed immovable, acting as Roberto Firmino or Sadio Mané.
Although the case of the Portuguese attacker could be an exception for Atlético, the truth is that in July 2016, together with Diogo Jota, he was also presented to the mattress fans Rafael Santos Borré. There are those who will be surprised to see the Colombian striker posing with the red and white shirt. This is because the current Eintracht Frankfurt player, who signed in 2015, at just 19 years old, a six-year contract with Atlético de Madrid, he never got to show it off on the pitch. Although, until now, he has had less impact on the international scene than his former partner, it is another ‘Diogo Jota case’. A player, Santos Borré, who came from Deportivo Cali, where he stayed one last season before coming to the Spanish LaLiga; he only played one season at Villarreal before heading to Argentina and that, after becoming an important player in River Plate, he returned to Europe to become the offensive reference of the recent European executioner of FC Barcelona.
First of all, the Colombian striker’s time at Atlético de Madrid, who In the words of José Luis Pérez Caminero himself, Atletico sports director, he was a player with “an enormous projection and an enormous future ahead”, it was not easy. Despite the fact that Santos Borré stated in his presentation that “if I have to sweat blood to stay, I will do it”, the truth is that not having a community passport hampered his beginnings in European football.
A round trip… and one way
In the summer of 2016, after doing the preseason with the colchoneros, the Colombian, then 20 years old, headed to Villarreal. On loan, and without a purchase option, Santos Borré ended up playing 30 games in the 2016/2017 season with the yellow submarine. However, and due to the great competitiveness on the attacking front of the people from Castellón (Cedric Bakambu, Nicola Sansone or, once recovered, Roberto Soldier), he barely started 12 times, scoring 4 goals and dishing out 2 assists. Just one season after landing in Europe, and without having worn the red and white shirt yet, Santos Borré left for River Plate. In Argentina, with continuity, minutes and opportunities, he did end up showing the conditions that they saw him at Atlético but never got to try.
During the four and a half seasons that he wore the red and white shirt, in this case the River Plate shirt, Santos Borré scored 56 goals, in addition to giving 15 assists. While the 2019/2020 season was his penultimate year in Argentina and the most prolific in front of goal (20 goals), in the previous campaign he emerged as a great scorer of important goals. While in the Club World Cup of the 2018/2019 season he scored 3 goals in 2 games, River Plate reached the final of the Copa Libertadores that same campaign, which they ended up losing to Flamengo but in which Santos Borré opened the scoring for the millionaires.
Now, at Eintracht Frankfurt, Santos Borré already has another one to add to that list of important goals. The Colombian striker scored the second of the three goals for the Germans in a Camp Nou packed with visiting fans. A goal that, in addition to being chosen as the best of the second leg of the quarterfinals, would ultimately be vital for the classification of the team that reached the Europa League semifinals last summer. With this, Santos Borré adds 9 goals (and 5 assists) in his first season in German football, in his return to European football. Although the Colombian still has a long way to go to approach the level and figures of Diogo Jota at Liverpool, the truth is that, at 26 years old, this is another case in which the excessive impatience of the mattress makers has ended up playing tricks on them. Whether it was to take advantage of his performance as an athletic player or, in his case, obtain a significant economic return once the player exploited his conditions.