by Salvatore Riggio
His brace in the final minutes of the match took Ancelotti’s team to the final: Madrid’s 15th Champions League is one step away
José Luis Sanmartin Mato, known to everyone simply as Joselu, is the center forward who overturned the Champions League semi-final and rewrote the destiny of Real Madrid. A hurricane that surprised Bayern Munich, swept away by a brace in the 88th and 92nd minutes – in the sacred temple of the Santiago Bernabeu – and gave Los Blancos and Carletto Ancelotti yet another European final. And now the big goal, against Borussia Dortmund at Wembley on June 1st, is to win the 15th trophy, confirming the Real Madrid/Champions League combination, handed over by history into the hands of the Merengues already in the 1950s.
However, let’s take a step back and try to understand who “l’hombre del partido” is. Joselu landed in Madrid on loan from Espanyol (relegated) to even replace Benzema, who said goodbye, packed his bags and moved to Saudi Arabia, in the gilded cage of petrodollars. At the same time, however, the attacker was forced to make space for himself in a team that can boast people like Bellingham, Vinicius and Rodrygo (just to name three) and which, from next season, will also have Mbappé and the young (new) phenomenon in its squad. Brazilian, Endrick.
Joselu, who is 34 years old and born in Stuttgart, Germany, remained on the bench for 81 minutes on yet another European night at the Santiago Bernabeu. Desperate for the mistakes of his teammates, for Neuer’s saves and for the opening goal scored by Davies. In short, one step away from the debacle, Ancelotti turned around, called him and threw him into the fray.
And here is the second life of Joselu, an accidental hero, after a career as a supporting character with a suitcase in hand. The striker had already played, when he was 21, for Real Madrid: one appearance and one goal in 2011-2012. A farewell to seek glory between Germany and England with Hoffenheim, Eintracht, Hannover, Stoke City and Newcastle. In 2019 he returned to Spain to wear the shirt of Alaves and Espanyol. And he confirmed himself as a good center forward: between 2019 and 2023 he scored over 50 goals in the league. Enough to deserve the call from Real Madrid, who were looking for a backup striker capable of sitting on the bench without causing controversy and without making demands. And it is precisely that center forward who knocked out Bayern Munich. One thing, for him as for everyone, unimaginable: «I would never have dreamed of a night like this. If I spoke from my heart, it would explode now. I found myself in the right place at the right time, I scored two important goals and now I’m in the final”, he said.
On May 28, 2022, when he was wearing the Alaves shirt, Joselu was at the Stade de France in Paris. Not as a player, but as a fan. Why yes, the 34-year-old is also a big Real Madrid fan and on the occasion of the final won in Paris against Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool he was in the stands cheering for yet another Los Blancos feat. Now it was he himself who gave the trip to Wembley to Ancelotti’s troops. Furthermore, Joselu is the brother-in-law of his locker room partner, Dani Carvajal: they are both married with twin sisters. Respectively with Melanie Cañizares (brought to the altar in 2016) and Daphne Cañizares (in this case the two have been engaged since 2018), born in Mallorca, but of Dutch origins. The two footballers have always been friends. They met at Real Madrid in 2010. Carvajal subsequently moved to Bayer Leverkusen, while Joselu signed for Hoffenheim. The full-back returned a year later to Real Madrid (managed by Carlo Ancelotti), while Joselu, as already mentioned, wandered around a bit before finding himself in the Spanish capital and being found in the right place at the right time.
9 maggio 2024
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED