Joselu Mato did not waste much time in announcing his departure from Real Madrid as soon as his contractual situation with Espanyol was cleared up, with whom he still had one season left to sign. Pushed by the overpopulation of forwards in the white squad, the Galician striker is heading to the Qatari League, encouraged also by the juicy offer received at 34 years of age. Concentrated with the Spanish national team two days before the Euro Cup round of 16 match against Georgia, the striker published on his social networks this Friday afternoon a farewell letter and thanks to the merengue club for his brief and successful return to Castellana. “Thank you is the best and most appropriate word to express everything I feel, for what you have made me feel, for having kept my dream alive and made it come true,” wrote Joselu. In parallel, the club also announced his departure.
The operation took a decisive step on Thursday when Espanyol, the owner of his federation rights until 2025, announced that Madrid had exercised the purchase option of 1.5 million euros. An intermediate step to sell him later for the same price to Al-Gharafa and which has ended up paving the way for his departure. In this way, the player has prevented the white and blue team from gaining strength in the negotiations with the Qatari, raising its financial demands and stopping his departure to the Persian Gulf.
The arrival this summer of Mbappé and Endrick to a forward line that already included Vinicius, Rodrygo, Brahim, Güler and Joselu himself, plus the playmaker Bellingham, has encouraged the Galician born in Stuttgart to seek new horizons due to the fear that his participation was going to be cut drastically. However, and despite the abundance of offensive pieces, Carlo Ancelotti is left without a very specific profile, a monoculture player, who had been sorely missed in the two previous seasons to attack through the air, with crosses, defenses closed.
Endorsed by his brother-in-law and former Castilla teammate Carvajal, Madrid picked him up on loan a year ago from the then-relegated Espanyol and, in reality, made him the only substitute for Karim Benzema. In the meetings with the leadership, Ancelotti had put the name of Harry Kane on the table, but the Galician appeared. His performance, in line with the team, reached unexpected heights (18 goals) until culminating with his double against Bayern, in the second leg of the Champions League semi-finals, the great night of glory of his career.
Joselu’s career at Madrid has been distinguished by its precision and effectiveness. In his two seasons at Castilla (2010-12), he scored 42 goals, enough for the entity to make six million euros with his sale to Hoffenheim, in one of the usual retail operations with the quarry to make barn. And after going through eight teams in 11 seasons, and suffering two consecutive relegations, he was recruited in Valdebebas to sharpen his pencil again. “Years ago I left, but I never left. Today I am also leaving, but in reality I am staying,” Joselu closed his farewell. Now the Qatari League awaits him, a minor competition that has also been overshadowed in recent years in the region by the powerful entry into the Saudi Arabian market.
His departure is the second this week at the Bernabéu after that of captain Nacho, Joselu’s teammate in that white reserve team. Unlike the striker’s goodbye, the departure of the centre-back opens a gap in the center of the defence, which is left with only three names (Rüdiger, Militão and Alaba), and the third, the Austrian, has not yet recovered from the cruciate break. The club does not rule out investing in that position.
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