Joselu hits the corner flag with a shot from 22 yards after coming on as a 74th-minute sub for Yoshi Muto in a 1-0 home defeat to Brighton.
The St James’ Park crowd grumble. A £5m bargain striker, seven goals in 52 appearances, a symbol of Rafa Benitez trying to work a miracle in the Mike Ashley era. Just one headline from the Joselu we knew in Newcastle, less than six years ago.
Aged 34, he’s now written a new story, and one all the more remarkable considering what came before. And one that is uplifting, and a lesson in football and life.
The latest headline: Supersub Joselu, sharp and reactive, dynamite in front of goal, smashes two goals in three minutes to elevate Real Madrid to the Champions League final. More goals in 180 seconds than in his last nine months on Tyneside.
Now, Joselu, journeyman of Stoke, revived in Alaves and Espanyol, a never-give-up hero, advert for persistence, is forever part of Bernabeu folklaw.
He hears the legacy of his time in the Premier League every day. Madrid teammate Jude Bellingham has nicknamed him “Crouchy” because of his lanky stature and season spent with Peter Crouch at Stoke.
At Newcastle, if we are honest, his name conjures memories of dark days of struggle. A deputy for Salomon Rondon, as Benitez just about kept the Toon’s head above water. Most likely, chucked on from the bench with 15 minutes to go. Joselu wasn’t as bad as all that. Yes, he lacked pace, badly. But he was a focal point, tactically aware, a link man and very good in the air. There was always potential, now unlocked by the superstars around him.
He called himself “a different sort of player” who can “fix the centre backs” and convert crosses. At Newcastle Joselu recalls: “I wasn’t playing. You get a chance and if you miss, maybe it’s three or four games before you play again. There were bad moments. It’s inevitable.” No wonder there were tears of joy from his wife and family, when he was recently called up for Spain. “After everything we’d been through…” And inevitably more tears on Wednesday night.
He’s earned his moment. After starting out in Germany via Hoffenheim, Frankfurt and Hannover he landed in Stoke for £5m in a decent team of Crouch, Marco Arnautovic, Jon Walters, who he loved. They finished ninth reaching the League Cup semi final. He was loaned to Deportivo la Coruna for a season.
Benitez then took him for £5m saying: “A good striker with technical ability … But you have to manage with the tools that you have and he was a good price. It’s like when you buy a car. If you don’t have too much money, you buy a car that maybe can do the job but it’s not so spectacular and not so fast.”
After two seasons on Tyneside, he left and admitted: “It would have been easy to say I’m not dropping down. I could have stayed, picked up my money, not played. But I wanted to compete, to feel important” He said before the first leg of the semi final, that experience in England – half of his 68 Premier League games were as a sub – and “three good seasons at Alavés, then Espanyol, helped me reach where I am now.”
And where is that? A Spain debut just before his 33rd birthday. Dining at the top table in Madrid, a specialist at changing a game with a style very different to superstar teammates like Vinicius Junior and Bellingham.
Any English fan who witnessed the character-building struggle on Tyneside and Stoke, will cast a wondrous glance at Joselu now and think: good on you. Always dream, never give up.
