Borja Baston Is the Forgotten Atletico Madrid Player Who Can Shine in 2015-16

Borja Baston was enjoying a fine season, his Real Zaragoza side were on course for the Segunda Division playoffs and clubs in La Liga were taking note. "Getafe are interested in Atleti's Borja Baston," ran a headline from AS in May, one that should have screamed nothing but positives for an emerging 22-year-old striker but instead will have stirred mixed emotions. 

Little over five years earlier, Borja made his Primera Division debut for his boyhood club, Atletico Madrid, against Getafe. That match was Atleti's final outing of the 2009-10 season in La Liga, playing at the Vicente Calderon with little on the line, Quique Sanchez Flores resting a number of his regulars ahead of the upcoming Copa del Rey final against Sevilla.

After 58 minutes, Borja replaced Tiago, winning a senior appearance for the club he'd been at since he was four years old, having joined the youth setup in 1996. As a goalkeeper.

Happy times. Or they should have been.

Atletico lost 3-0 and Borja's debut lasted 21 minutes, a serious anterior cruciate ligament injury destroying the then-17-year-old's big day.

The recovery period, predictably, was long, and much of his 2010-11 season was written off. What's followed since have been four consecutive loan spells—first at Real Murcia, then at Huesca, Deportivo La Coruna and Real Zaragoza. On each occasion, it's gotten better for Borja. 

At Murcia, he scored four goals in 20 league appearances. The following year at Huesca, he took those numbers to nine in 31. In 2013-14 at Deportivo, the return became 10 in 34.

Then, last season, at Zaragoza: 23 in 39. Borja's career is going north. 

In 2015-16, he's almost certain to return to Spain's top division after four seasons in the second tier. But it won't be with Atletico. Not at the Calderon.

In recent weeks, Los Colchoneros have signed Jackson Martinez, Luciano Vietto and Yannick Carrasco to join Antoine Griezmann and Fernando Torres, significantly bolstering their forward options as manager Diego Simeone looks to oversee an evolution or shift in style on the banks of the Manzanares. Borja, therefore, will be loaned out once more, but this time to a club in La Liga, with AS reporting that Getafe, Real Betis, Villarreal, Malaga and Las Palmas are all interested in the Atleti forward. 

These are exciting times for Borja—and Atleti too. The club has a long history of fine strikers, and Borja might be another one in the making. A season in La Liga will tell us a lot, but his upward trend is already encouraging; 23 goals represented a fine return last season and were the culmination of four years of progression and hard work.

Of course, being prolific in the Segunda is very different to being prolific in the Primera. In 2013-14, another Borja, Borja Viguera, topped the second-division's scoring charts, tallying 25 goals for Alaves and earning a move to the Basque Country to join Athletic Bilbao. His league return last season? One goal. But it can go the other way.

In 2012-13, Almeria's Charles and Real Madrid Castilla's Jese led all scorers in the Segunda Division. The following season, both men enjoyed strong campaigns in the top flight with Celta Vigo and Real Madrid respectively—at very different ages too.

Clearly, there is a fork-in-the-road point when making the jump. Scoring at La Romareda isn't anything like scoring at La Rosaleda, let alone the Calderon, Bernabeu, Camp Nou, Mestalla or San Mames. But Borja's game suggests he has the tools to be a success. 

Though he's not overly fast, explosive or powerfully built, the Atleti youth product's game is based upon clever movement, positional awareness, predatory instincts and neat, one-touch finishing. He's the sort of striker who finds a yard of space in a congested penalty box; the sort who's often found putting away rebounds; the sort who times his trailing runs nicely; the sort who doesn't need extended time to get a shot away. 

He's not spectacular in any way, but much of what he does appears instinctive and natural. It's also intelligent.

Such qualities should prove valuable in La Liga, a division in which athleticism on its own isn't the be-all and end-all—a division that requires savvy or nous dashed with technical quality. It's why Aritz Aduriz, Sergio Garcia and Alberto Bueno were able to thrive last season. An eye for goal is just as valuable as a dynamic set of legs. 

As such, Borja, with a suitable game and on an upward trajectory, can shine in 2015-16. It won't be at Atletico, but it will be in La Liga. And if his career continues northbound, a permanent return to the Calderon won't be too far away.