Joselu Mato did not waste much time before announcing his departure from Real Madrid. Pushed by the overpopulation of forwards in the white squad, the Galician striker is heading to the Qatari League, also encouraged by the juicy contract that awaits him at 34 years of age. Concentrated with the Spanish national team two days before the Euro Cup round of 16 match against Georgia, the striker published on his social networks this Friday afternoon a farewell letter and thanks to the merengue club for his brief and successful return to Castellana. “Thank you is the best and most appropriate word to express everything I feel, for what you have made me feel, for having kept my dream alive and made it come true,” wrote Joselu.
The operation took a decisive step on Thursday when Espanyol, with whom he still had one season left on his contract, announced that Madrid had exercised the purchase option of 1.5 million euros. An intermediate step to sell him later for the same price to Al-Gharafa, which has paved the way for his departure. In this way, the player has prevented the white and blue team from gaining strength in the negotiations with the Qatari team, raising its financial demands and stopping his move to Qatar.
The arrival this summer of Mbappé and Endrick to a forward line that already included Vinicius, Rodrygo, Brahim, Güler and Joselu himself, plus the playmaker Bellingham, has encouraged the Galician born in Stuttgart to seek new horizons due to the fear that his participation was going to be cut drastically. However, and despite the abundance of offensive pieces, Carlo Ancelotti is left without a very specific profile, a monoculture player, who had been sorely missed in the two previous seasons to attack closed defenses.
Backed by his brother-in-law and former teammate at Castilla, Carvajal, Madrid brought him back from the then-relegated Espanyol a year ago and, in reality, made him the only replacement for Karim Benzema. In the meetings with the top brass, Ancelotti had put Harry Kane’s name on the table, but the Galician appeared. His performance, in line with the team, reached unexpected heights (18 goals) until culminating with his double against Bayern, in the return leg of the Champions League semi-finals, the great night of glory of his career.
Joselu’s career at Madrid has been distinguished by its precision and effectiveness. In his two seasons at Castilla (2010-12), he scored 42 goals, enough for the entity to make six million euros with his sale to Hoffenheim, in one of the usual retail operations with the quarry to make barn. And after going through eight teams in 11 seasons, and suffering two consecutive relegations, he was recruited in Valdebebas to sharpen his pencil again. “Years ago I left, but I never left. Today I am also leaving, but in reality I am staying,” Joselu closed his farewell.
His departure is the second this week at the Bernabéu after that of captain Nacho, Joselu’s teammate in that white reserve team. Unlike the striker’s goodbye, the departure of the centre-back opens a gap in the center of the defence, which is left with only three names (Rüdiger, Militão and Alaba), and the third, the Austrian, has not yet recovered from the cruciate break. The club does not rule out investing in that position.
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