Tired of modern football? For anyone looking for a story to restore their faith, the unlikely case of newly minted Spain international Jaime Mata should help.
In his mid 20s, the striker was still only semi-pro, and a series of near-misses suggesting he was destined for no more than languishing in the lower leagues. Yet on Saturday, he stepped out in a Spain shirt at the Mestalla at the ripe old age of 30.
Proof that with hard work, it’s never too late to get your break.
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Mata celebrates the end of Spain’s win over Norway with Marco Asensio.
Most top footballing talents these days are spotted as teenagers then carefully developed, with their path to the top meticulously planned by the big clubs.
Mata, on the other hand, was about to turn 26 and had been deliberating over abandoning his football dream to become a customs officer, when then Girona sporting director Oriol Alsina spotted him playing with Lleida in the third tier.
“I had just finished studying and I thought going to Lleida would be a couple of sabbatical years, like an Erasmus,†the now Spain international reflected in an interview with Cadena Cope last week.
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23•3•19 🇪🇸Internacional absoluto español🇪🇸 Victoria 💪
It’s easy to see why Mata had little cause for optimism: with Lleida he had twice cruelly missed out on promotion to the second division at the play-off stage (setbacks are a recurring theme in his career).
Far from the glamour of La Liga, in the Spanish third tier there is no money of note. Not getting any younger and seemingly not going to make it as a pro, switching to a different career with a steady income must have looked very tempting at that moment in time.
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Then Girona came calling: “I had the chance to be a professional, and that was absolutely crazy for me. I thought, maybe I can keep doing this for a bit longer?â€.
Alsina, the man who signed him, didn’t last long at Montilivi, but the sporting director’s punt on a lower-league striker marked the start of a domino effect that has carried on all the way to the very top. In the more immediate future, Mata would have an impact at Girona too, twice finishing as one of their top scorers as the Catalans made it to the play-offs for promotion to La Liga, only to – yes, you guessed it – fall at the final hurdle on two occasions.
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DÃa de derbi 🥊
Like with Lleida, two times with Girona was too many, and instead of sticking around for what seemed like more disappointment at Montilivi, the forward moved to Valladolid in the summer of 2016. The cruel irony? At the end of that season Girona were finally promoted to La Liga for the first time in the club’s history. Valladolid finished seventh. Just imagine how Mata felt then.
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Paso a paso, golpe a golpe, asalto a asalto! Gameday 🔴⚪ï¸
But what followed was the most pivotal season in Mata’s career. While at Girona his talent was obvious, so too was his inconsistency: in two seasons of more than 40 games he scored only 21 goals, both capable of exciting periods of brilliance then frustratingly long dry spells.
It wasn’t form that suggested La Liga level regularity in front of goal. Nor was his first year at Valladolid, when he only managed five strikes in the league, and often ended games as an unused substitute.
No one could have predicted what would happen next. In the 2017/18 season Mata morphed into the epitome of what the Spanish call a “killerâ€, a pure goalscorer. It felt like every shot he took ended up in the net: with 35 strikes including two in the play-offs, he was the key figure in taking Valladolid back to La Liga for the first time in five years. His numbers were so good it was the second best all-time goalscoring return for a striker in the Segunda, only bettered by Sporting Gijon forward Ricardo’s 46 in 1956/57.
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Mata celebrates play-off victory with Real Valladolid last season.
Mata puts the dramatic shift down to nothing more than “confidenceâ€.
Whatever it was, Getafe had seen enough, snapping him up on a free transfer last summer in what has now proven to be one of the deals of the season.
Playing in a way only someone with no time to lose can, the signing has made remarkably easy work of the step up to La Liga, scoring 15 goals in 29 games so far in 2018/19. For Getafe, remember.
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Gran trabajo, gran victoria!
Incredibly, Madrid’s least fashionable side are in fourth place and only 10 games away from qualifying for the Champions League for the first time ever. Mata, their top scorer who has turned half-chances into goals, and assisted seven for his teammates, is a huge part of that. No one really believes Getafe can do it, but then no one believed Mata could either.Â
He is only the third Getafe player ever to be called up for Spain, evidence of just how exceptional a story it is for him to even be there alongside the likes of Sergio Ramos and Jordi Alba, let alone to make his debut as he did against Norway.
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Mata argues with Atletico Madrid ace Saul
For Mata, it is all a bonus. This is someone who last week admitted to being blown away by the luxury of not having to wash his own kit when he first debuted in the third tier: “I used to come into the dressing room and think wow, there are two physios here, that’s so cool!â€. He couldn’t have imagined then just how much better things would get. Â
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