Joselu the unlikely Real Madrid hero ‘just happy to be a footballer at Stoke City’

On the training pitches of Clayton Wood some nine years ago, there would be the sight of a Spanish striker putting in extra sessions of finishing after other Stoke City players had gone in for lunch. Joselu, their £5.75 million signing from Hannover 96, could not get in the team but as one team-mate says “he was happy to be a footballer”.

There was nothing to suggest in that 2015/16 season that Joselu would become an unlikely hero for Real Madrid, scoring the two goals this week to send them into the Champions League final when it looked like Bayern Munich had sent them crashing out.

But according to Peter Odemwingie, his team-mate at the Bet365 Stadium, it was his hard work during this time that paved the way for a football miracle. Joselu went to Deportivo La Coruna, Newcastle, Alavés and Espanyol before getting loaned to Real Madrid, where he was seen as a stop-gap forward until Kylian Mbappe became a free agent. When Real were last in the Champions League final, two years ago, he was there as a fan with his father.

“He wasn’t particularly slow or rapid but had a good touch and a good finish and one thing that caught my eye was that he was keen, he was happy to be a footballer,” Odemwingie told Telegraph Sport. “He was very athletic, tall with a very good build for a forward.

“He wasn’t playing regularly but among those who weren’t in the team, he wasn’t anxious or angry, he was a composed person. He was not toxic, he was good to have around even though he wasn’t as active as he wanted to be. I remember during this time he was working on his finishing a lot.

“He wasn’t well spoken in English but it wasn’t zero communication. He had other Spanish players in the squad and seemed fine. Those players made a difference for him to help him settle. He was a cool guy.”

Joselu made 10 Premier League starts in that first season in the Premier League, scoring four goals. A fairly healthy ratio, although he failed to break into Mark Hughes’ team. Behind the scenes, he was friends with countrymen Bojan Krkic and Marc Muniesa, along with Ibrahim Afellay who had a Spanish connection after playing for Barcelona. After one year Joselu was loaned to Deportivo as his journeyman career continued.

“He was humble when he was at Stoke and never gave up,” said Odemwingie. “It shows that miracles can happen in football. A career is like 90 minutes of football, you have to play to the last minute and you never know what can happen. Two goals and his name gets flown around the world. It is great for someone like this to make it at that high level, it gives hope to any sportsman.”

Joselu succeeded where Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior failed on Wednesday night, scoring the goals that broke Bayern hearts and earned a place in the Champions League final.

After starting in Celta Vigo’s Academy he played at Real’s reserve team and also Hoffenheim before moving to Hannover and Stoke. Those moves to middle-ranking European teams were a world away from the Bernabeu when he pounced on Manuel Neuer’s fumble to score an 88th-minute equaliser before turning home Antonio Rudiger’s cross in the first minute of stoppage time.

The Spanish forward, who has 10 caps for his country, is on loan at Real Madrid from Espanyol, who suffered relegation from La Liga last season despite Joselu’s 16 goals in 34 league appearances.

“I don’t know anything about being a hero, but I’m very happy... You can imagine,” Joselu said after the match. “It was incredible, something spectacular. This team never gives up, it’s in its blood to fight to the end and that’s what we’ve done.

“You always dream of this kind of performance, but not even my most beautiful dreams are as big as what happened today.”

Joselu is not the first player with a spell at Stoke on his CV to thrive in the Champions League. In a curious quirk, Joselu became the seventh member of Hughes’ Stoke squad for the 2015-16 season who had reached, or would go on to reach, a Champions League semi-final. Stoke were relegated two years later.

Joselu will become the fifth member of that squad to be in the matchday squad for a Champions League final should he be fit and available to face Borussia Dortmund at Wembley on June 1.

Peter Crouch came on as a substitute for Liverpool in the 2007 final, when they lost 2-1 to AC Milan in Athens. Bojan was an unused sub for Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona when they beat Manchester United in the 2009 final, while Afellay was brought on in stoppage time in a repeat of the same fixture in 2011. Xherdan Shaqiri was an unused substitute for Bayern Munich in the 2013 final, as well as for Liverpool in 2019. Marko Arnautovic was an Inter Milan player in 2010, but was not part of their squad for the final against Bayern Munich.

Two-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid Jesé would also go on to play for Stoke in 2017-18.

“It was a Stoke City ball,” was how TNT Sports pundit Paul Scholes described the delivery into the penalty area that led to Joselu’s stoppage time winner against Bayern.

Joselu later made 25 Premier League starts across two seasons at Newcastle United, scoring six goals, the last of which came against Chelsea in a 2-1 defeat in August 2018. Rudiger was in Chelsea’s team that day. His last appearance in England came in Newcastle’s 2-0 win over Burnley in February 2019. His next appearance in England will be at Wembley thanks to his two goals against Bayern.