What was the first thing you thought when you scored the two goals against Bayern? Joselu was asked last Monday, on the day of open doors to the media before the Champions League final. Everyone was waiting for an answer about the ecstasy of the moment, but nothing like that. “Well, I’m going to be honest with you,” the Madrid striker began, “a little murky things came to mind, from the last two years, from the two relegations. In the end, the mind plays tricks on you and it made me a little angry. I had things on my mind that I didn’t want. Then I enjoyed it much more,” confessed the nine. His great night of glory and, suddenly, the ghosts of his past at Alavés and Espanyol attack him.
Joselu Mato was already one of the names in London’s match with Dortmund. One of the few of the white team to play in their first European final and, above all, the only one who two years ago traveled to Paris as a fan in the final with Liverpool, supporting his brother-in-law Dani Carvajal (his wives are twins). He had gone down to the Second Division with Alavés only two weeks before, he still did not have a new team, and the right back invited him to live in Saint-Denis with his father-in-law (both of them) and his sister-in-law (the wife of the Merengue defender). . And there it was.
From that day to the present is what marks his great leap. From the stands in 2022 to the grass in 2024 has become the best metaphor for how his career has changed. “This Champions League, I remember the moment when Joselu came on against Bayern,” Carlo Ancelotti highlighted this Monday.
Two years ago, during the day he spent in Paris, he did not hide from anyone, he posed with Carvajal’s shirt in the center of the city and published the photos on the networks. The episode, beyond the relationship with the defender, attracted attention because it involved an elite footballer, then a daily rival of Madrid, and also caused some surprise among some Madrid employees who saw him in the French capital and also knew him because He had passed through Castilla between 2010 and 2012.
“It was chaos, my mother, a security disaster. But what counts is that Madrid won,” the striker recalled earlier this week about the incidents that afternoon outside the French stadium that forced the game to be delayed for almost half an hour.
When he made that trip to Paris, it was already known that he would not continue in the Second Division with Alavés – he even demanded 275,000 euros, but the court denied it because the end of the contract was due to his will – and he still had a month left to sign. for Espanyol. With his parakeets he would suffer his second consecutive relegation, the cruel past that assaulted Joselu in the middle of the delirium against Bayern.
“There’s Joselu, that one screws up”
The forward was presented these days as an example of a late success story. “I can serve as an inspiration for many children,” he said. “No one can give up on their dreams. Two years ago, he had not even debuted with the national team,” he added. In addition to his miraculous double against the Germans, his shot rate this season in the Champions League (10.1 every 90 minutes) is the highest of any player with more than 100 minutes played since Opta has records (2003-04 ).
Madrid paid 500,000 euros last summer for his loan – a clause in the contract with Espanyol opened if he was relegated to the Second Division – and can now execute a purchase option. Only three months before the whites re-fished him, Joselu recalled in the program The resistance, among the general laughter, his distant past at the Bernabéu, like an episode already closed. “I have been lucky enough to play for Madrid and not many people can say that. I made my debut against Almería. Two minutes, and I scored. A certain Cristiano Ronaldo put a cross in front of me. He raised his head and said: ‘There is Joselu. That one screws it up. 8-1, boom. I went straight for him, I even wanted to cry. I don’t know how many more times I’m going to do this in my life. “I didn’t know when I was going to see myself in another one,” he said then in a joking atmosphere that hid a reality: no one imagined his immediate future. It was March 2023.
At the beginning of this year, Carvajal also laughingly appealed to the family connection to explain the victory against Atlético in the Super Cup. “With 3-3, I thought it would be great to give my brother-in-law a ball and have him score it,” explained the winger. He no longer invites him to the finals, he plays them with him.
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