Real Betis striker Borja Iglesias has opened up on the reasons he decided to turn down West Ham during the summer in favour of a move to the Seville based club. The Londoners were said to have looked at Iglesias along with Maxi Gomez who eventually joined Valencia but ended up signing Sebastien Haller from Eintracht Frankfurt.
Iglesias scored 20 goals for Espanyol during the 2018/19 campaign and made the move to Betis for £25.2m according to Transfermarkt.co.uk.
Speaking to Estadio Deportivo, the striker said: “When you face a possible transfer, you value many things. To me the idea of playing before 50,000 people motivated me a lot, at the team level I think I have improved a lot although in Espanyol it was also very good.
“You are making decisions for feelings. I have always said that I like the Premier League and that I would like to play there one day, but I liked the project, and I am very happy.”
TIF Tactics – Did West Ham dodge a bullet as far as Iglesias is concerned?
Real Betis have had a dreadful start to the season and as a result, find themselves languishing in 17th place just four points clear of the drop zone. They’ve managed just three victories all season and Iglesias, who is valued at £25.2m by Transfermarkt.co.uk, has only made the starting XI in 67% of their La Liga fixtures.
His only league goal came in a 3-1 victory over Levante back in September whereas Haller has managed four in the Premier League so far. According to WhoScored.com, Haller has a far superior average performance rating of 7.27 compared to Iglesias’ 6.44 which suggests the Hammers got the right man.
With that being said though, Manuel Pellegrini’s side have struggled for goals this season in the Premier League, as they have only managed to hit the back of the net a total of 14 in the top-flight (WhoScored).