Real Madrid’s Champions League hero Joselu’s rise to stardom was an almost overnight phenomenon.
But the striker’s journey has humble beginnings indeed.
The 34-year-old is on-loan at Real Madrid from Espanyol until the end of this season.
And the Spaniard has been a huge asset – scoring 17 times in 47 appearances for the club.
Two of those goals have proved to be particularly vital – Joselu’s late brace against Bayern Munich earned his side a place in the Champions League final.
He has certainly come a long way since his two stints in the Premier League, where he played with Stoke City in the 2015/16 season and with Newcastle from 2017 to 2019.
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The forward did not enjoy much success with Stoke City, only scoring four goals in the 27 appearances he made for the Potters.
But since leaving in 2017, Joselu’s career seems to have taken an upward trajectory with the Champions League final set to be the absolute pinnacle.
Not all of his former Stoke teammates have taken similar paths though, with some familiar names appearing within the lineup that featured in Joselu’s final match with the club against West Ham in 2016.
One of Joselu’s ex-teammates was a player who had already won the Champions League by the time he joined Stoke City.
That was none other than Bojan Krkic – a player often heralded as ‘the next Messi’ as he made his name having broken all manner of records during his four years at Barcelona as a teenager.
Not only did he become the youngest player to feature for Barcelona in a La Liga match, he also became the club’s youngest ever goalscorer in a league match.
In the Champions League, he also earned the title of the youngest player to score in the knockout phases – and at the end of the 2007/08 seasons it was revealed that he had broken the record for the most goals scored by a player in a debut season.
Bojan won everything there was to win with Barcelona before he was bought by Roma in 2011.
His career eventually took him to Stoke City in 2014, where his play was inconsistent and marred by injury.
After leaving Stoke in 2019, the trajectory of his career seems to have been the opposite to Joselu’s and he eventually retired in March 2023.
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Another of Joselu’s teammates was former striker and the current sporting director at Stoke City, Jonathan Walters.
Walters was at Stoke for seven years, scoring 62 goals in 271 games before moving on to Burnley and finishing his career with a loan spell to Ipswich.
But the forward is also well-known for the public feud he has been involved in with former Manchester United star Roy Keane.
The pair clashed in 2018 while Keane was assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland and Walters was one of the squad players.
The dispute began after a leaked WhatsApp voicenote appeared to show Keane criticising Walters for not attending national team training.
Keane also hit out at Walters for a TV interview he did on The Late Late Show, where he accused Walters of ‘crying on the TV about his family situation’.
Walters had opened up in that interview about opened the death of his mother and his brother. his wife’s miscarriage and his daughter’s scoliosis diagnosis.
Speaking to talkSPORT in January 2024, Walters had his own say on the conflict.
He said: “The Irish stuff was ridiculous, he was the assistant manager of a national team, you’re preparing for a game in France, and that was wrong.
“He came back with that because I’m the only player who ever got one over on him, not just once but twice, and he knows it, and that’s probably what annoys him.”
Joselu only overlapped with Walters for two seasons – but he was not the only Irish teammate he had whilst at Stoke.
He also crossed paths with former Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given, who retired from football not long after Joselu’s move to Spain.
Given made just eight appearances for Stoke, but he will be better remembered for the 134 Irish national team appearances he made.
The keeper was also part of the Manchester City squad that won the FA Cup in 2011, although his playing time was limited by Joe Hart.
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News Summary:
- Joselu’s Stoke teammates included ‘next Lionel Messi’ and Roy Keane rival – now he’s in Champions League final with Jude Bellingham
- Check all news and articles from the latest Football updates.