Joselu: How journeyman striker went from Premier League flop to Real hero

Joselu needed just three minutes of a Champions League semi-final to transform Real Madrid’s fortunes and go from Newcastle and Stoke flop to Bernabeu hero.

After treading a curious career path which includes troubled spells on Tyneside and in the Potteries, Joselu showed that life can indeed be stranger than fiction by stepping off the bench to bewilder Bayern Munich.

Joselu brought parity in the 88th minute by being first to Manuel Neuer’s inexplicable fumble, and then swept home a stoppage-time winner to bask in adulation previously reserved for the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Raul.

Those crazy few minutes booked Real’s ticket to the Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund, and left Joselu with double the amount of goals he managed to score for Stoke at the Britannia Stadium between June 2015 and August 2017.

But then Joselu’s story has been a slow burner for both club and country.

Born in Stuttgart and raised in Galicia, he did not win his first senior cap until March 2023 when two days short of his 33rd birthday – making him the oldest Spain debutant since 2006.

Prior to that was a tortuous struggle via Celta, Real Madrid – he was promoted from the B squad in 2011 but scoring on his LaLiga debut proved a false dawn – Hoffenheim, Eintracht Frankfurt and Hannover before the Premier League beckoned.

Four goals in 27 Stoke appearances followed a £5.75 million move – and only one at home in a 3-1 victory over Norwich in January 2016.

With the assertion that Joselu could not do it on ‘any cold rainy night in Stoke’, the Spaniard was loaned out to Deportivo La Coruna after 14 months before Rafael Benitez took a £5m punt in days when Newcastle money belts were tight.

Joselu flopped again with seven goals in 52 appearances, almost half of which were as a substitute, during two seasons at St James’ Park.

A 2018 tweet from a Newcastle journalist that ‘Joselu has just hit the corner flag with a shot from 20 yards’ was seized upon and reposted furiously after Wednesday’s Champions League heroics.

Joselu’s career appeared to be winding down at Alaves and Espanyol but Real returned in June 2023 to announce a loan deal, with an option to buy at the end of the season.

Former Stoke team-mate Shay Given described it as “almost like a Roy of the Rovers story”, even if Real fans expecting the arrival of World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe from Paris St Germain were perplexed.

Yet the gamble has paid off with Joselu being in the right place at the right time on 17 occasions this season.

He has scored for Spain, won LaLiga – his first major club trophy – and now has European football’s biggest prize in sight.

Stoke and Newcastle must seem a long time ago for the 34-year-old.