It was one of the most surprising transfers of last summer: former Stoke City and Newcastle United striker Joselu signed on a season-long loan deal at Real Madrid with an option to buy.
The Spaniard spent time at Real Madrid Castilla (the club’s ‘B’ team, which is full of young players) early in his career and even played twice for the first team back then, but this decision was still a shock given the memory of his less than stellar stays in England. Still, the 34-year-old has played an important role as a replacement option this season, scoring 13 goals in 38 games and stepping in when starting forwards Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo need rest.
Joselu is far from the first unusual name to fill this role for Madrid: Emmanuel Adebayor, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez and Alvaro Morata have all been their backup strikers in recent years. This is a unique position in which strikers must get used to limited playing time and make the most of the few minutes they are given. Some became frustrated and moved on; others were simply grateful for the opportunity.
So, what’s it like playing second fiddle for Real Madrid? And what is Joselu doing this season?
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Javier Portillo knows well the frustration of being a back-up striker at Madrid.
Now aged 41, he scored 739 goals in competitive and non-competitive matches for the club’s youth teams from 1994 to 2002. This earned him comparisons with their legendary striker Raul, but he did not was able to imitate his idol in the first team.
“One of my virtues was competitiveness,” Portillo says. Athleticism. “I took every day like it was the last day of my life because it was like that; because it was my moment. But I was also aware that it was very complicated.
Portillo scored on his senior Madrid debut at the age of 19, in a Champions League group stage match against Panathinaikos of Greece in March 2002, and signed his first professional contract that summer -there. His then manager, Vicente del Bosque, told him to “take advantage” of the opportunity and “that when the opportunity presented itself, I had to take it”, but Portillo encountered a familiar obstacle at the Bernabeu.
“I did pre-season with a first-team shirt number and on the last day of the transfer market, (Brazilian) Ronaldo arrived,” he said. “(Michael) Owen came (from Liverpool in 2004); the next year Robinho and Julio Baptista came, and the next year (Ruud) Van Nistelrooy came. You can be happy to wait one, two or three years, but you can’t wait for golden opportunities to present themselves when you don’t participate.
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Portillo sought more playing time on loan at Fiorentina in Italy and Club Brugge in Belgium before leaving permanently for newly promoted Gimnastic de Tarragona from La Liga in 2006. He expressed hope of being able to return to Madrid one day, but retired at age 33 in 2015 after also playing for three other Spanish clubs: Osasuna, Hercules de Alicante and Las Palmas. He is now back in the capital, where he works as chief scout for Rayo Vallecano.
Madrid’s love of signings often makes securing a first-team starting spot impossible. Alvaro Negredo played for Castilla from 2005 to 2007, but the future Manchester City striker never made a first-team appearance for Madrid.
“It was very difficult, especially when I returned from Almeria in 2009,” says Negredo, 38. “Cristiano Ronaldo had just arrived, Kaka too, there was Van Nistelrooy, (Klaas-Jan) Huntelaar… It was very difficult to play there and gain minutes. Players who come as stars are criticized and even more is demanded of local players.
But it’s one thing to be an academy striker recruited into the first team and another to be recruited elsewhere, specifically as a substitute.
The examples of Adebayor and Hernández are the most unusual in recent years. The first arrived on loan from Manchester City in January 2011 after Madrid manager Jose Mourinho compared Karim Benzema to a cat when bemoaning his team’s options in attack. “If you don’t have a dog to go hunting with but you have a cat, you go with the cat, because you can’t go alone,” Mourinho said.
Adebayor has done quite well during his time at the Bernabeu, winning a Copa del Rey winner’s medal and scoring eight times in 22 matches, including two in the Champions League quarter-finals against Tottenham Hotspur and a hat-trick in the last day of the Copa del Rey. La Liga season against Almeria. But Madrid did not exercise their option to buy the Togo international, who later suggested a family dispute played a role in the decision.
“I did everything to stay at Real Madrid but because of my late brother I couldn’t stay,” he told BBC News Africa in 2017. “He sent an official letter from the Adebayor’s family at the club (saying) that they shouldn’t keep me. I’m not saying that’s why they didn’t keep me, but that could be part of it.
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Madrid fans have happier memories of Hernandez’s time in the Spanish capital. “What’s in my hands is my attitude,” the Mexican said after being loaned by Manchester United for the 2014-15 season. “I see it more as an opportunity, not just anyone can be here.”
Hernández scored nine times in 33 games – the highlight being the winning goal to knock out city rivals Atletico in the Champions League quarter-finals. The look of disbelief on his face during that celebration showed how much his time there meant to him, even though the club again chose not to sign him permanently.
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But none of these players expected to land a regular starting spot. It was different for Morata, who came through the youth system but failed to break that barrier in two spells with the first team in 2010-14 and 2016-17.
Morata had better stats than Benzema last season (the Spaniard contributed 20 in all competitions, Benzema 19), but even then he felt he would still be behind the Frenchman in the pecking order. He left for Chelsea permanently in the summer of 2017 and has since returned to town with Atletico, where he has endured some bitter battles with his former employers. Spanish fans booed him this week during the national team’s friendly against Brazil at the Bernabeu, when he was captain.
Some second-choice strikers signed by Madrid have proven to be costly mistakes.
Luka Jovic arrived from Eintracht Frankfurt for €63 million in 2019 after a 27-goal season with the German side, but left three years later having scored just three times in 51 appearances. His time there was so disappointing that Madrid’s leaders feared another ‘Jovic case’ when head coach Carlo Ancelotti asked them for a striker last summer.
In an interview last year, Jovic blamed his problems at Madrid on injuries, Covid-19 and “unfair pressures”, which included a trip back to Serbia at the start of the pandemic, where he was accused of for breaking self-isolation rules and criticized by the country’s prime minister. Sources close to the player – who asked to remain anonymous as they were not authorized to comment – say he was not as focused as he should have been, but claim he did not had enough consecutive starts to prove his worth.
Joselu’s case is different.
He scored in both of his appearances for Madrid’s first team from 2010 to 2012, but left in search of bigger opportunities and took a winding path back to the club, including those spells in England. He had some frustrations – like in a Champions League match against Napoli where he missed numerous chances and apologized to the Bernabeu crowd when he finally scored – but his efforts endeared him supporters.
“Joselu has taken on his role very well,” said Alberto Bueno, another former academy striker who spent the 2008-09 season in the first team but left after six appearances. Bueno went on to play for teams like Porto in Portugal, as well as Rayo Vallecano and Real Valladolid – and also spent the 2010-11 season on loan at Derby County of the Championship, the second tier of English football.
“He knows, when he has the opportunity to play, that he must contribute and knows when his role is to come in in the second half, to change the course of the match or to secure certain moments. He knows perfectly well that he is not the first choice for certain matches but he knows that he is an important player in the dressing room.
For Cristo Gonzalez, who made four appearances for Madrid’s first team in the 2018-19 season after being promoted from Castilla, playing for the 14-time European champions is enough to convince any striker. The 26-year-old now plays in the Portuguese elite with Arouca.
“No one likes to be a substitute, we all like to play; but ultimately being in Madrid in this role is rewarding because you are competing with the best,” says Gonzalez. “Everything you win in Madrid has 10,000 times more merit than anywhere else… Joselu plays a secondary role for the best team in the world.”
Even so, it must be frustrating knowing that your moment will only come when stars such as Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham are injured.
Teenage striker Endrick, who scored in his first appearance at the Bernabeu for Brazil on Tuesday, will join Madrid this summer and they are expected to sign French captain Kylian Mbappe when he leaves Paris Saint-Germain in this same window. Joselu’s future is uncertain, but Athleticism indicated that he is expected to stay.
So how do you deal with all of this as a striker?
“It’s important not to put too much responsibility and pressure on yourself sometimes,” says Bueno. “When the context is more difficult and the players are better, you have doubts about why they choose another player and not you. But it is important to have confidence in yourself and to always be ready to seize the opportunity when it presents itself.
Additional reporting: Mario Cortegana
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(Top photos: Getty Images)