América closes deal for Miguel Borja amid striker crisis

Three strikers lined up for one semester, and at one point, none of them available. That was the drama América went through, one that pushed Guillermo Almada to move heaven and earth to get Miguel Borja signed.

América's attack had been struggling for several tournaments already, but this time the problem hit rock bottom. Víctor Dávila started the semester as the starter, but a ligament injury sidelined him after the opening matchdays. Almost simultaneously, Rodrigo Aguirre's move to Tigres was being finalized, and as if that weren't enough, Henry Martín suffered a setback from the injury that had been bothering him. The result: América was left without any of its three natural options up front and had to turn to academy product Patricio Salas to hold down the attack.

With that outlook, signing a reliable number nine stopped being a luxury and became an urgent need. That's where Borja came in, a striker who had already known about the possibility of playing in Mexico for some time.

A signing that almost went a different way

This isn't the first time the Colombian has flirted with Liga MX. Back in January he came close to signing with Cruz Azul and even trained at the club's La Noria facilities, but that deal fell through. Borja ended up signing with Al-Wasl of the United Arab Emirates, a club with which he played 16 matches and scored eight goals during the six months he spent there.

The situation changed for reasons unrelated to soccer. Rising military tensions between the United Arab Emirates and Iran worried Borja and his family, and that factor outweighed financial considerations when it came time to decide his future. The striker walked away from a salary of three million dollars to prioritize his return to the Americas, and when América's offer took shape, he didn't hesitate, even though it meant signing for a lower salary of two million dollars.

At his unveiling with the club, Almada explained what he saw in the Colombian that convinced him he was the piece his attack needed.

He's a goal scoring forward, with mobility, speed, team spirit and effort.Guillermo Almada

Those traits, according to the coach himself, are exactly what he's looking to add to the team's collective play. After a semester in which the lack of strikers weighed heavily on much of América's offensive output, Borja's arrival stands as a direct answer to that problem: a top level attacker with proven scoring ability across different leagues, who will now need to adapt quickly to the pace of Liga MX and to the demands of a club that isn't used to waiting for results.