Borja Iglesias: “I like responsibility, otherwise life would be very boring”

“At launch I try to relax and think about the shot.” Until last Friday, when Edgar Badía, Elche’s goalkeeper, saved his second penalty, Borja Iglesias Quintas (Santiago, 1993) was a killing machine from a distance of eleven meters. “They always let me throw them away from a young age, I don’t keep track of how many I have, even since I’ve been a professional,” he admits. Since arriving in the First League, he has scored 17 times from the penalty spot. Three with Espanyol and 14 as Betic. The last two at Martínez Valero, where he performed with full success.

On the first hit, he was looking for the right hand. Goal. In the second, he opted for his left side, but the goalkeeper, who flew to the same side as with the previous penalty, stretched out his hand to divert the path. “I wanted to hit hard, but it was a little off center. If anyone had to end my streak, I’m glad it was Edgar, because he’s one of the goalies that works best for them and actually for a lot of them. The first thing I did was to congratulate him – admits the Galician Betis striker.

“I train them every week”

– I train them a lot every week. Borja is staying with three Betis goalkeepers — Claudio Bravo, Rui Silva and Dani Martín — to round out his line-up. “I like shooting all three because they are different. I try to throw them in different areas so that I have a few well prepared options and then decide. In Getafe, he won for Betis, from the penalty spot, equaling Manolo Alfaro, who set the record in the 90s as Betis with the most consecutive penalties without a miss in 15. Panda surpassed him, and only Germán with 19 and Cristian Stuani with 17 improved their rating in the First League. The Girona striker ended his streak just last October against Almeria.

“I don’t study goalkeepers. If I know he’s very impulsive, I try to hold out a little longer before I hit him, but I prefer not to depend on how they are and focus on improving my hitting,” says Borja, who doesn’t forget the only bad spell he had as a pitcher.

“With Zaragoza, I failed three times in a row in a month (between January and February 2018), the three I failed as a professional in my entire career. All in Romared and all three in the same goal. Lugo was the last to stop me. The goalkeeper was Juan Carlos, who is now in Girona. This year I threw him another one and he had to touch it – he recalls. Asked if he felt dizzy then, he claims that he did not stop throwing them. “Nevertheless, after failing them, I shot two in the same game, risking a place in the playoffs, and in the same goal. Life is wrongly affected. Things need to be relativized – he says.

Last Friday, Betis were awarded a third penalty in the last minute of stoppage time against Elche. After missing his own, Borja Iglesias passed the ball to Willian José who scored. Panda just took a break. “I hope that both my teammates and the coach will continue to believe that I will continue to throw them,” he admits with a laugh. Panda is not afraid of pressure, nor is he attracted to the comfort of those who do not fall because they do not throw. “What I like is responsibility, otherwise life would be very boring,” he claims.