Joselu

Celta

Joselu played his two first professional matches for local Celta Vigo in the second division, late in the 2008–09 season. Since the age of 18, at about the same time he made his debuts with the main squad, he played with the B-team in the third level. In late summer 2009, Joselu was purchased by Real Madrid, being immediately loaned to his former team for a further campaign. He was relatively used during the division two campaign, but only scored four goals as the team finished in 12th position.

Real Madrid

Joselu was Real Madrid Castilla's top scorer in the 2010–11 season, alongside Álvaro Morata, but the team failed to win promotion in the playoffs. On 21 May 2011, he made his first-team – and La Liga – debut, coming on as a substitute for Karim Benzema for the last ten minutes of a home fixture against Almería: he scored almost immediately from a Cristiano Ronaldo cross, making it 8–1 to the hosts. On 20 December 2011, in his second official appearance for the main squad, Joselu replaced Benzema in the 77th minute of the home match against Ponferradina, for the season's Copa del Rey. He scored the goal to make the match 4–1 two minutes later, in an eventual 5–1 win. In his second season with Castilla, Joselu became an essential offensive unit for manager Alberto Toril, and responded by netting 26 goals (19 in the regular season and seven in the playoffs) which made him the competition's top scorer, as his team were promoted to division two after…

Joselu represented Spain at under-19, under-20 and under-21 level, but never received a call-up to the senior squad until he was nearly 33. He was also capped for Galicia in 2016. On 17 March 2023, Joselu received his first call-up to the Spain national team for the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying matches against Norway and Scotland. He came off the bench against Norway on 25 March, making him the oldest Spain debutant since 2006, and scored twice in two minutes to help Spain achieve a 3–0 win. On 15 June 2023, he scored the winner for Spain in the 88th minute, four minutes after being subbed on, in a 2–1 victory over Italy in the Nations League semi-finals. In 2024, he was named to the squad for the UEFA Euro 2024. He helped Spain secure a record-breaking fourth European championship.

Joselu plays as a forward and has been described by his former manager Mark Hughes as a "technically adept forward...He's a good technical player, he's got good ability and I like his movement. His link-up play is very good and with the finishing we've done so far in training I've been very pleased. You can see technically he's very adept, getting his body in the right position to take chances".

Joselu was born in Stuttgart, West Germany, and attended school in the country for four years, until the age of 10, before his family returned to Galicia, Spain.