The journey began in Lleida, as a player and a ball-picker. “It’s a shame that Lleida is as it is, but I’m not surprised at all. The last time Elche was in Second B they faced Lleida, and today with Elche we are living something that I could have lived in Lleida “, he laments. Leaving the plain team, he arrived at Getafe B. And leaving the Madrid club branch (2015) he took a flight, alone, to South Africa. “The representative told me he had no offer.” Well, there must be something in Second B. “” No, nothing. ” it was very bad, they didn’t want me, “he recalls. He was tested on three top teams: “At Platinum Stars, one week. At Moroka Swallows, or as they say, one day. And at Ajax, six days.”
And he goes on to say, “One day, on his way from Rustenburg to Johannesburg with the representative there, his name was Ryan, he passed a police car in the opposite direction, with the sirens on. He turned around and started chasing us. Ryan got super nervous and tried to escape. Suddenly we stopped at a gas station. And the police car went on. He looked at me and said, “Not police». «Why not, Ryan?» «They are friends of ex-cops. They leave the car to rob tourists». «Don’t fuck around Ryan». He had stopped at the gas station because there were people and they wouldn’t follow us there, “Milla recalls.
I’m in First, yes. But I’m still Pere d’Alcarràs ”
Pears Milla Elche player
Peter has that moment engraved as an eternal reminder of what he has had to mourn. “It’s different to get to Primera at 21 or 27. When you’ve had to cut stone, you value everything a lot more. It’s hard to get here. I have to get here anyway, fighting wind and tide, like Elche “, he admits. “I never thought about quitting football, but I came to think, ‘Maybe the dream of professional football is over. We’ve come this far,'” he says. In the end, patience prevailed. Its motto, in fact, is “Patience is the virtue of the winners.” “Things don’t start out like a flight, but maybe they end up coming out with patience. Maybe not as you want, but a little bit as you want. You have to be patient. And a lot of perseverance. And good luck,” he added. “I’ve always been on the other side of the road, defeat. This is football and this is life many times. It’s not that you turn your back, but here some win and some lose. But it’s always been to keep trying. And in the end I reaped good results, “he concludes.
August 23, 2020, marked forever
Now he smiles in Elche, where he arrived in 2019. And he smiles in Primera. “I always thought, ‘I wish I could play in the Second Division one day.'” This season he has scored seven goals, tied with Lucas Boyé as Martínez Valero’s scorer. In Primera he has already celebrated 11. “As a child you dreamed of making 50 or 100 and when you grow up you realize that every goal is a treasure,” he admits. He scored one goal at the Camp Nou in the first round (3-2) and two at Cornellà-El Prat in the second round (1-2). Against Madrid, one in Elche (1-2) and one at the Bernabeu (2-2). “My godfather didn’t tell me anything all week,” says Milla, from a Madrid family. “As a kid, you always say, ‘Wow, one day I’ll score a goal here. And there.’
Milla, as Montilivi well remembers, is also the author of the goal that returned Elche to Primera and filled Girona with tears (2020): a header in the 96th minute of the return match of the final of the play-off. “Football is this: some cry, some laugh. I’m sorry for the people of Girona, forgive me.” “I was extremely happy that day. play-off. And he had lost them all. “It’s my turn this year, it’s our turn.” And it turned out well. I will never forget that August 23rd “, he remembers excitedly. Now he shares his life with Gerard Gumbau and Francisco Rodríguez, ex-Girona residents.That motherfucker fucked me up a promotion». We are doing very well, “he said.
Milla is the Catalan who torments Catalans. “I have nothing against the Catalans, but I always score. I also scored for Nàstic. I have Lleida left,” he says with a laugh. “If I score a goal against an ex, I’ll celebrate. Why apologize? Don’t apologize. Don’t apologize for apologizing. It’s hard to score a goal, like apologizing. A goal is a goal, and he must always celebrate “, he concludes, before saying goodbye:” Right now I’m signing a goal for Girona next year, in Primera. I hope so “.
