At 29 years old, Borja Iglesias is having a great time like a little boy in an amusement park in Las Rozas. He made his debut in a call-up for the senior team less than two months before a World Cup and his everlasting smile has deepened. “Everyone is very close and the adaptation is being very easy, we have a very healthy and very happy group”, he congratulated himself this Thursday before the media. The presence of the striker from Compostela under the orders of Luis Enrique exemplifies the arduous race that awaits especially attacking footballers to seal their passport to Qatar.
Far from being reduced, with Iglesias himself and Nico Williams, another debutant these days, the battle to be part of the World Cup forward with Spain has intensified. It will not be easy for the coach when it comes to defining the list of attackers, a scenario that coaches always appreciate. Being able to choose is a luxury.
Luis Enrique must give before November 14 a list of between 23 and 26 footballers. Of them, it is expected that 6 or 7, depending on the final number of summoned, will be forwards. The Asturian has already warned that it is on the offensive front that he wants to have more variety. And, at the moment, he works with a list of 11 names. They do not include Iago Aspas, who has never finished entering his plans for much of a goalscoring idyll to brag about, nor Raúl de Tomás, who has ruled himself out with his summer grotesque.
Of those who have entered the last list, there are three footballers who, if there is no injury that prevents it, seem to have their place guaranteed on the final list. Three strikers who Luis Enrique trusts the most, who has counted on them even when they have not had much prominence in their teams, as is the case now with Ferran Torres, top scorer since the arrival of the Spaniard (13), and Pablo Sarabia. The azulgrana has only missed one call-up with Luis Enrique and it was due to injury, while the man from Madrid has been a fixture on the lists for more than a year and a half. Both give the profile of the forward that the coach likes and fit perfectly into his game scheme. The third on this list is the always discussed Álvaro Morata, the nine most used by the coach in his time on the Spanish bench, in which he has scored 12 goals, and the seventh top scorer in the history of the red (26).
Of those who have not entered this last call, there is a fourth footballer who seems to have a guaranteed position, as long as he manages to overcome his knee problems. It is Dani Olmo, a regular in Luis Enrique's elevens in recent times, and a man he also trusts thanks to his ability to sacrifice and at the same time his potential scorer with a powerful shot.
From here, the contest promises to be huge and if we stick to the coach's record, the merits contracted in these almost two months remaining until the World Cup will be decisive. In this section we must include Marco Asensio, for example, who after almost two years absent returned in June to Luis Enrique's plans. Also to Yeremi Pino, who despite her youth has a crush on the coach and shone with her own light in the last final four of the Nations League at just 18 years old. They have now been joined by Borja Iglesias and Nico Williams, who daydream of being in Qatar.
The last three candidates deserve a separate chapter. The first is Gerard Moreno, one of the best Spanish scorers in recent years who, despite not being called up since September last year, is in the coach's deck. The second is Ansu Fati, who was on the June list just after his serious physical problems but did not play a minute and this time he has not even entered the call, perhaps so that he can work on the physical with ease in Barcelona. Fati is one of the Spaniard's favorite strikers and if he picks up a bit of cruising speed with Barça he will be safe in Qatar. The last one is another right eye of Luis Enrique, Mikel Oyarzábal, who broke his knee on March 17 and will arrive just at the World Cup. But, unusual for him, the coach has confessed that he has called him “3 or 4 times” to see how he is doing, which makes it clear that he will wait for him until the last second.
