When the final whistle went in Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final second leg, the hero of the night fell to the ground and lay face down on the Santiago Bernabeu turf.
Real Madrid’s number 14 was soon submerged as delirious team-mates raced over and piled on top. That hid the identity of the player everyone wanted to celebrate with, the one whose two late goals completely turned around the tie and broke Bayern Munich hearts.
Advertisement
But Madrid’s jubilantly celebrating fans knew exactly who he was — and chants of “Joselu, Joselu” rang out around the tremendous newly-rebuilt stadium.
At 34 years and 42 days old, Joselu was the oldest substitute to score a double off the bench in a Champions League knockout game. It was an especially strange sight for Premier League fans, who remember the Spanish striker from unsuccessful spells at Stoke City and Newcastle, but he was the deserved star of another incredible Madrid comeback in Europe’s elite club competition.
When he entered on 81 minutes, with Bayern 1-0 ahead on the night and 3-2 up on aggregate, Madrid were really up against it. Alphonso Davies’ goal might have been against the run of play, but Bayern were looking solid and logic suggested Carlo Ancelotti’s side were in deep trouble.
But then fate — and Joselu — intervened. First, Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who had looked unflappable all night, let slip Vinicius Junior’s snapshot from the edge of the box. Joselu had only been out there for seven minutes, but he was quickest to react.
Within three minutes, the centre-forward was again in the right place at the right time to convert Antonio Rudiger’s cross past Neuer and win the tie for Madrid. The officials initially thought the goal was offside, but the veteran had his positioning spot on. He knew it was going to count and soon the whole stadium did, too.
“Games are decided with the heart and I do not lack that,” Joselu said afterwards. “I’ve worked hard for many years, lots of manual labour, been to many places, known many people, but destiny had something saved for me. Tonight was something incredible, but this is Real Madrid, now we are thinking about the final.”
Such talk of hard work was not wrong. After being signed from Celta Vigo as a teenager, Joselu was a consistent scorer for Real Madrid Castilla, the club’s reserve team made up of youth players, without ever really contending for the senior side. He played just six minutes in his only La Liga appearance, scoring as a late sub in an 8-1 victory over Almeria on the final day of the 2010-11 season. Then-Madrid coach Jose Mourinho also gave him 12 minutes off the bench in a Copa del Rey fourth-round game against lower league Ponferradina the following season, and he scored then, too.
GO DEEPER
Joselu has gone from the bench at Stevenage to Real Madrid - how?
But he was soon sold to Hoffenheim and bounced around the lower reaches of the Bundesliga, Premier League and La Liga for over a decade. He often scored goals, though, especially in Spain. He hit double figures in each of his three seasons battling against relegation with Deportivo Alaves and then scored 16 times in 34 games in an Espanyol team that was relegated last year.
Advertisement
But he never lost touch with Madrid. It helped that his partner’s sister was going out with (and would later marry) his old Castilla team-mate Dani Carvajal. But he was also a genuine fan of the team, even more so after three years at the club, to the point of asking online for help with a link to watch them play soon after he had arrived in Germany in 2012.
Alguien me puede dar un link bueno para ver el madrid?
— Joselu Mato (@JoseluMato9) August 23, 2012
Consistent goals for Alaves and Espanyol in more recent years broke Joselu into the Spanish setup — as a plan B who could be called for off the bench, particularly when they needed a goal and were facing packed defences. He scored twice in two minutes on his international debut in March 2023, a Euro 2024 qualifier at home to Norway. That was just two days before his 33rd birthday, making him the oldest Spanish debutant since Ferenc Puskas in 1961 (after Puskas had switched from representing the country of his birth, Hungary).
A late-blooming international career has also been going well. Usually the backup to national captain Alvaro Morata, he now has five goals from 10 caps. These include the close-range poacher’s effort, with 88 minutes gone, that decided the 2-1 victory over Italy in last summer’s UEFA Nations League semi-final.
So when Madrid president Florentino Perez was looking for another striker for his squad last summer, after Karim Benzema surprisingly decided to head to Saudi Arabia, Joselu fit the bill — especially as money was being saved for another push to bring in Kylian Mbappe this year and Brazilian youngster Endrick was already lined up. A one-year loan deal was agreed with Espanyol, for a €1.5million fee.
It also helped that, over his career, Joselu had often scored against Madrid whenever he faced them. Eight goals in 10 games spread between Deportivo de la Coruna, Alaves and Espanyol means a goals-per-minute record against Madrid in La Liga which only Barcelona’s Lionel Messi can come close to matching. That Joselu won only one of those games, with Alaves at Madrid’s temporary Alfredo di Stefano training ground stadium during Covid, arguably makes that record even more impressive.
Advertisement
Even still, Madrid coach Ancelotti would have preferred to sign Bayern’s England captain Harry Kane last summer, but the canny Italian knew better than to complain. He set about reworking his starting XI so that Jude Bellingham could shine as a goalscoring attacking midfielder, usually flanked by Brazilians Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo.
Joselu has been a backup option, generally sprung from the bench, but he has not complained. He was delighted to be back at Madrid — Carvajal, by now his brother-in-law, helped him to settle in, while Nacho and fellow Galician Lucas Vazquez were also good friends.
Joselu has played his role excellently throughout the La Liga season. Nine goals in 32 games does not sound great, but they have come in only 1,493 minutes of football. Some have been important, too — including a winner at Real Sociedad and a goal and assist in the crucial win at surprise challengers Girona in the autumn, as well as a brace at Getafe in February. Most have been either headers or poacher’s finishes from close range — but they all count and his ninth La Liga goal of the season against Cadiz on Saturday means he is a very deserving winner of a championship medal.
He started just two of Madrid’s Champions League group games, both against Union Berlin, but ended with three goals from five appearances. Ancelotti has been especially reluctant to use him against ‘bigger’ opponents, feeling that the movement and guile of other options — such as Brahim Diaz — is more useful in trying to unlock top defences. So until the second leg against Bayern, he had just 18 minutes in total from Madrid’s first five knockout games this term.
There were few other attacking options on Madrid’s bench on Wednesday night — Arda Guler might also have been thrown on with a last roll of the dice – but Joselu entered the fray and the Bernabeu’s ‘remontada’ (comeback) history had another, unlikely, hero.
Madrid head to another final — in search of a record-extending 15th European Cup/Champions League trophy — at Wembley on June 1 against Borussia Dortmund. Joselu was at their most recent victory two years ago against Liverpool in Paris, when he travelled to support his friends and family. Shortly afterwards, he left Alaves to join Espanyol.
“Two years ago I was there as a fan, supporting ‘Carva’ (Dani Carvajal),” he said after Wednesday’s game. “I was so happy that he could win.
“I was a Madrid fan as a boy, I had the chance to play for Castilla, and now I’ve had the chance to come back. This badge is part of my life, it’s a feeling, an emotion. Hard work, and the confidence of the club, have borne fruit.”
(Top photo: Helios de la Rubia/Real Madrid via Getty Images)
