FW scored his first international goal at 32 to lead the team to the UCL final at 34
Real Madrid’s frontline anchor Joselu will play in a stellar final for the first time in his career.
Real Madrid will take on Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League (UCL) final of the 2023-24 season at Wembley Stadium in London, England, at 4:00 a.m. ET on Sunday.
Ahead of the match, one player has stood out. It’s Real forward Joselu. Joselu made his professional debut in 2008 with Celta Vigo B and later joined Real Madrid’s Castilla (second team). After a breakout 2010-11 season in which he scored 14 goals and provided four assists for Real Castilla, he was given the opportunity to make his first-team debut. Joselu started one La Liga game and one Copa del Rey game, scoring in both.
However, he wasn’t able to break into the first-team and eventually bounced around between Hannover, Stoke City, Newcastle United, and Deportivo Alaves. In the summer of 2022, he found a new home at Espanyol. He’s been a revelation. Joselu scored 16 goals in the league this season, making him third on the La Liga scoring list. However, Espanyol’s relegation to 19th place made him a target for Real.
At the time, Real were in urgent need of a frontline striker. Karim Benzema had left the club and they had already invested heavily in Jude Bellingham, so they couldn’t afford to spend big, so they brought in Joselu on loan to fill the void.
He has exceeded expectations. Joselu was the type of striker that Real didn’t have at their disposal, fighting in the penalty box and looking for a shot. He’s even been on fire this season, scoring 10 goals and adding two assists in 34 La Liga games.
He was also instrumental in Real’s revolutionary run to the UEFA UCL final. In the quarterfinal second leg against Bayern Munich last month, Joselu scored an 안전놀이터 invaluable equalizer in the 43rd minute of the second leg after trailing 1-0, and then scored the winner three minutes later to send the team to the final.
Joselu’s progression to the UEFA UCL final has surprised one of his former teammates. “If you asked me to predict which of my teammates would play in the Champions League final, Joselu would not be at the top of the list,” Newcastle goalkeeper Rob Elliott told The Sun. It’s fair to say he wouldn’t even be close.”
“But I would be very happy to see him play against Dortmund. So would all the other players who shared a locker room with him a few years ago. I was 바카라사이트 추천 really moved when he scored a multi-goaler against Munich.”
Joselu’s career hasn’t been one of steady streams. “When Joselu joined Newcastle from Stoke, it wasn’t plain sailing for him, he struggled to score goals, but he never put his head down. He worked incredibly hard in training and was one of those strikers who didn’t hide on the pitch and played all day,” Elliott recalls.
Still, Elliott joked, “Even if he started the Champions League final, I wouldn’t bet on him scoring the winning goal.”