Borja Valero starts again from the Florentine amateurs of the Centro Storico Lebowski, a club with a cooperative structure that plays in the Promotion league and claims a 'romantic' approach to football, as opposed to the exasperation of the sports business.
The 36-year-old Spanish midfielder announced his retirement at the end of June after his contract with Fiorentina expired. But the passion for football and the stimuli of this new adventure so different from the Serie A that he met convinced him to change his mind. "I accepted this challenge because I recognize myself in the values brought" by Centro Storico Lebowski, said Valero: "I was sure I would play another season at Fiorentina, not for the money, but to help out". Then this possibility arose, "I saw the enthusiasm, the organization and above all I recognize myself in Lebowski 's values" added the ex of Real Madrid and Inter, who will be on the DAZN commentator team next season. A video that is popular on social media portrays him while, in the stands,sing chants with the fans of his new club.
At the end of June Valero, who Fiorentina withdrew from Villarreal in 2012, had explained the end of his career in a message on social media. "The time has come that always seemed far away, to stop playing football (...) I would have liked to do it under the Fiesole curve full of spectators but unfortunately, in football as in life, it doesn't all depend on us" he had written, recalling the symbolic place, in the Artemio Franchi stadium, of the brightest purple cheering.