On May 21, 2011, Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid faced the last day of the League with the title lost to Barcelona. The appointment was a commitment without more, but the whites took it out on Almería, bottom team that season. Cristiano Ronaldo (2), Adebayor (3), Benzema (2) and a boy from the subsidiary who made his debut that same day scored. Joselu Mato, born in Stuttgart in 1990, raised in the small Galician town of Silleda and arrived in Valdebebas in 2009 after touching the roof of Celta's first team, took to the field that afternoon and scored Madrid's eighth goal from a pass from Cristiano Ronaldo. That fast, that easy. Like the two goals he scored in the 83rd and 85th minute for Spain against Norway in March and the 2-1 goal he scored against Italy in the 88th minute of the Nations League semifinal. All that Madrid needs.
Twelve years after his debut, the striker returns to the Santiago Bernabéu converted into a Spanish 'pichichi' and a new tank for Chamartín, who recovers the guarantees in the role of substitute striker after too many years depending solely and exclusively on Karim Benzema. Joselu arrives on loan from Espanyol, which has just been relegated to the Second Division, in exchange for 500,000 euros and with a purchase option of 1.5 million, becoming the fourth Real Madrid signing of the summer after Fran García, Brahim Díaz and Jude Bellingham .
The footballer asked for more interesting challenges after scoring 16 goals in the League and the economy of the parakeet team will appreciate freeing one of the most important chips in the squad despite losing all his scoring ability.
His landing in Valdebebas means recovering a striker for the Madrid cause, an endangered species in the white coliseum. Since the departure of Álvaro Morata in 2017, the most prominent substitute attacker has been Mariano, who has hardly counted for his coaches. In his last year at Madrid, Morata scored 15 goals and became the best substitute in the competition. Before him, the Madrid '9' had been divided between Benzema and Higuaín, two more than proven footballers.
Joselu has scored three goals with his head and has been the player who has finished the third most crosses (15), ahead of Benzema's 13, and the sixth who has taken the most shots on goal after receiving a through ball. That is to say, he mixes power in the aerial game with an interesting intelligence in the game into space.
Since he left the Premier League in 2019 to sign for Alavés, he is the fifth player with the most goals in Spanish football (52), behind Benzema (90), Iago Aspas (58), Gerard Moreno (57) and Leo Messi (55). His experience in competition is more than proven.
In addition, outside of the goalscoring records, his mastery of other situations stands out. He has been the leader in the League in games won per game (8.1), a statistic that has also made him receive many fouls: the ninth in the League that has suffered the most infractions.