A 34-year-old journeyman who failed to make an impression at Stoke City succeeded where Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior failed on Wednesday night, scoring the goals that broke Bayern Munich hearts and sent Real Madrid to the Champions League final.
Joselu, whose career has also taken him to Hoffenheim, Hannover and Newcastle United, 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.
Joselu joined Real Madrid as a youngster from Celta Vigo in 2010, scoring on his La Liga debut against Almeira in May 2011 before failing to make the grade. Now he is enjoying an unlikely second act at the 14-time European Cup winners, helping them pull another escape act in the knockout stages of the competition.
“I don’t know anything about being a hero, but I’m very happy… You can imagine,” Joselu said post-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 Mark 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 Ibrahim Afellay was brought on in stoppage time in a repeat of the same fixture in the 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.
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 started just 10 Premier League games in his season at Stoke, scoring four goals, before being loaned to Deportivo La Coruña the following season. He 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.
Joselu’s last appearance in England came in Newcastle’s 2-0 win over Burnley in February 2019. His next could well come in the biggest game in European club football.
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