Skip to main content

Jaime Mata - the one that got away (18th January, 2018)

A few months ago, Rayo fans woke up to this:

That was a bittersweet moment - pride for a Rayista who was going to succeed at Málaga, but bitterness at the club for letting him go for free and not tying him down early enough.

Midfielder Pablo Clavería slipped through the cracks. He wasn't renewed, and got tired of waiting - a depressingly normal situation for a smaller, cash-strapped club.

This is the story of another player who slipped through.

Like Pablo, he has a powerful shot on him. Unlike Pablo, it's key to his job. The striker made his name in his hometown of Madrid in the Tercera, after rising through the ranks of Galáctico Pegaso. He would play for the reserves in 2007, before playing for the senior team during the 2008-09 campaign.

During the 2009-10 campaign, economic hardship allowed Rayo Vallecano's B team to swoop in, and in December 2009 the 21-year-old signed for the reserves and was immediately loaned to Socuéllamos in the same level - the Madrid side's coach, Miguel Ángel Galán, actually trained the player at Pegaso.

Mata was subsequently loaned to fellow league team Móstoles for the 2010-11 campaign, where he broke out, scoring 25 goals and convincing Rayo to incorporate him in their B team in the Segunda B. However, his nine goals that season didn't convince Rayo to keep hold of him.



The mistake was swiftly and severely punished - in the first week of July 2012 Segunda B side Lleida Esportiu swooped in, and his rise from there has only been upward. Two seasons in the Segunda B led to a combined 29 league goals, and two attempts at the promotion playoffs - which was enough to convince Segunda side Girona to give him a shot at professional football.

The 26-year-old Segunda B hotshot went on to become a Segunda mainstay. His two-year contract came and went, with 19 league goals between 2014 and 2016, not to mention two more shots at the promotion playoffs. Those performances meant that he wasn't short of any suitors, and earned a move to fellow league side Real Valladolid.

The 2016-17 campaign saw Mata score just five goals in a season where he was third choice striker behind Raúl de Tomás and Juan Villar (14 and 10 goals respectively). However, this season, with Raúl de Tomás at Rayo and Juan Villar at Tenerife, Mata has become Segunda's unstoppable force, having scored a mind-boggling 19 goals in 22 appearances so far. Not only is he the Segunda's top scorer, he is ahead of everyone else by a mile - in second place is Córdoba's Sergi Guardiola with a paltry 12 goals.

It's not like he's running past defenders, or bullying opponents with sheer strength. He is everything Rayo want in a striker - intelligent, good on the ball, hardworking. And Rayo don't plan on making that mistake again - just recently, Rayo renewed the contract of Sergio Moreno, who is the top scorer in Group 5 in the División de Honor, a group that includes teams such as Real Madrid.

But Jaime Mata will, sadly, always be one of those players who got away.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ismael Urzaiz and Salamanca. A 22 team La Liga. Trust and Víctor Casadesús (9th June, 2017)

Salamanca traveled to Albacete to compete for promotion to La Liga with an impossible task on their hands. They had to overturn a 2-0 deficit away from home, against a side that entered La Liga's relegation playoff spots on the final day, and who had scored 44 goals in the league - just four less than Salamanca themselves. As the clock ticked towards the 90th minute, Salamanca were winning 1-0 yet in danger of losing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Born in Tudela, Navarre, Urzaiz began his professional career at Real Madrid's B-side, making his debut in Segunda División in 1989. Despite being a successful youth international, he did not make any La Liga appearances for the first team (however, he did play one game against Odense BK, in the 1990–91 European Cup). Urzaiz spent the 1991–92 season on loan at Albacete Balompié, making his top flight debut when he came on as a substitute against Athletic Bilbao in October 1991. In early 1993, he was loaned to Celta de Vigo

Non-league Incider: St Helens Town 3-0 Atherton Laburnum Rovers

Last game: 8th August: Dulwich Hamlet 2-1 East Thurrock United The previous day, I was blown away by my first ever football match experience. Dulwich Hamlet impressed me, but what impressed me more was the journey. The travel to the stadium was just as enjoyable as the football itself. I had caught the groundhopping bug. There were no games scheduled for the 9th of August. There was one, near Wigan, and all I had booked earlier was a refundable bus ticket from Manchester Airport leaving at quarter past midnight. I should have refunded it. This was a mistake. This whole day was a mistake. I was only slightly hungover from the previous night, but that was nothing compared to this feeling of loss - I couldn't handle the fact that there was a game happening. And I wasn't too far away. Just three hours and a bit. They'll fly by , I thought. I was in autopilot. Something within me made me get up, grab a bag, and get out the door. This wasn't me. I wasn't trave

Non-league Incider: Cray Valley Paper Mills 4-4 Punjab United Gravesend

Last game: 9th August: St Helens Town 3-0 Atherton Laburnum Rovers After ripping up my groundhopping calendar, mostly because I was determined to avoid overnight travel, and partly due to other commitments, there was a period of time where non-league football took a backseat. But that period did not last long. Because of course it didn't. Secretly, I'd loved travelling over ten hours back-and-forth to watch some 10th division football. And this was 9th division football in London. When I had gone to East Dulwich exactly a week back , I had commented on how the amount of graffiti struck me as I watched from on board a southeastern train. I was going the exact same way, but much further this time - then I had stopped at Denmark Hill, now I would have to go six stations further. The graffiti I had thought was so emblematic of south London quickly disappeared, as did the tall buildings desperately cluttered together. We, and by we I mean me, were going to the suburb