He did it again: Maikel Mesa kissed and pointed to the UD shield of his shirt when he scored the equalizer on Saturday at La Romareda, unsuccessful, because the yellow team was defeated, but just as meaningful. It is his hallmark, the one that offends so much in some sectors of Tenerifehis native land, however, his love for Las Palmas is unrequited. Or at least until recently, because the leaders of the entity wanted to get rid of it in the last winter market. and before too.
That is why it is striking that, suddenly, the midfielder has become the protagonist again, for which the change of coach has been essential. Francisco Javier García Pimienta, after not putting him on the bench in his training session against Real Sociedad B, included him in the other three games, the last of them, Zaragoza, as a starter.
It had not been since September 5, 2021, when he started in Anduva in the match against Mirandés. Then Pepe Mel was in charge, who had counted on him in the previous three days. Later, in more than five months, the man from Tenerife only 45 minutes in Lugo and 14 precisely in front of the team in Gran Canaria. Somehow, he had been ostracized.
The reasons, in addition to being purely sporting, an issue for which the former coach was solely responsible, were also financial, of a club nature. Mel began not to count on him, however, he knew that such a circumstance was good for the entity, that he had tried to get rid of him in the summer and, since he could not, he tried to do it in the winter with the same result of failure.
Maikel, neither before nor after, thought of leaving despite UD’s attempts to consider that he has one of the most unbalanced salaries in the squad based on performance. “I don’t even contemplate it and nobody has talked to me, that is, nothing for me,” he said in Valladolid in mid-December, just after Mel publicly commented that he was going to talk to some players to encourage them to leave after the elimination in the Copa del Rey – he was referring to Maikel and Unai Veiga, who ultimately didn’t want to leave either.
«I don’t have to be… I have a contract in Las Palmas. I have half a season left and another year. I am super happy here, I work to have more opportunities and I will continue to do so », he had commented in the same sense in his previous response.
He made it very clear, therefore, that he had no intention of playing anywhere other than Gran Canaria, although Mel was still there at the time and his chances of getting minutes were minimal. Maikel had already left in the winter market in the 2029-20 season, specifically to Albacete Balompié and that despite the fact that he was able to play everything that he had not done as a yellow, this time he chose to stay.
Because he has a contract until June 2023, that is, for the remainder of this course and the next. When he arrived in 2018 from former technical secretary Toni Otero, he signed until 2022, but since his salary was lowered, he won one more year. Ramírez and Helguera, despite everything, consider him a burden, and they made Mel understand that.
Meanwhile, Maikel Mesa has once again been the protagonist and kissed the shield. If her love is as true as it appears to be, then it is unrequited.