Jesé Rodríguez

Spain national youth teams

Jesé is a former Spanish youth international, having represented the nation at all levels from the under-16s to the under-21s between 2009 and 2014. In 2010, he traveled to Liechtenstein with the Spain under-17 side for the 2010 UEFA European Football Championship in which Spain ended as runners-up to England. Jesé scored one goal at the tournament, netting the opener in Spain's 3–1 semi-final win over Turkey. Two years later, Jesé netted five goals during Spain's victorious 2012 European Under-19 Championship campaign in Estonia, including a hat trick against Portugal and the winning goal against Greece in the final. Jesé also received the Golden Boot award for ending as the competition's top goalscorer. The following year, Jesé scored a further five goals and assisted another for the Spain under-20 team at the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey. Spain were ultimately eliminated at hands of Uruguay in the quarter-finals but the nation's early exit from the competition did not prevent Jesé from earning the Bronze Boot award for ending as the tournament's third top goalscorer. His form at the tournament drew praise from Spanish journalist Guillem Balagué who claimed he was better than Real Madrid's new world-record signing Gareth Bale was at the same age. On 6 February 2014, although he was still eligible to play for the under-21s, Spain manager Vicente del Bosque revealed that Jesé was in his plans ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in…

Jesé is able to play across the front line, operating either as an attacking midfielder, second striker or centre-forward, or in his favoured position out on the wing. During his time at the Castilla, Jesé was often deployed in a false 9 role in the team's 4–3–3 formation, and regularly switched flanks due to his ability to use both feet. In 2013, in his role as the club's sporting director at the time, Zinedine Zidane declared himself an admirer of Jesé's direct style of football and goal scoring ability. Following Jesé's promotion to Real Madrid's first team in 2013, manager Carlo Ancelotti played him in a winger position, where he could cut inside from the wing both with the ball and without, to create chances and score goals. His progression with Real Madrid's senior side often saw him compared to teammate Cristiano Ronaldo due to the similarities in their style as well as Jesé's technical ability, close control, pace and dribbling abilities. Jesé welcomed the comparison to Ronaldo and in a 2013 interview with Marca named the Portuguese as his favourite player, ahead of Brazilian namesake, Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho.

Real Madrid

Early career

Born in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Jesé began his football career with local team Huracán in 2005, whom he joined from amateur side El Pilar. His form at youth level for the club saw him attract interest from La Liga sides Espanyol, Mallorca and Barcelona, but he opted to sign for Real Madrid's youth system in 2007, aged 14. Jesé made his senior debut for the Real Madrid Castilla side on 16 January 2011 in a 5–0 Segunda División B home win over Universidad de Las Palmas. His performance throughout the match, which included an assist for Dani Carvajal, drew early comparisons to fellow Real Madrid teammate and multiple Ballon d'Or winner, Cristiano Ronaldo. Jesé spent most of the season with Real Madrid's Juvenil A team, however, and enjoyed a successful 2010–11 campaign which earned him a permanent promotion to the Castilla side.

2011–13: Youth and entrance to the first team squad

In July 2011, Jesé was selected by first-team manager José Mourinho for the club's pre-season tour of the United States and made his non-competitive debut for Real Madrid in a friendly against Los Angeles Galaxy, coming on as a 64th minute substitute for José Callejón and scoring in a 5–1 win. He returned to the Castilla for the start of the season and scored his first goal on 2 October 2011 against La Roda, finishing an assist from Álvaro Morata in a 4–2 away loss. Having impressed with the reserve side during the first half of the season,…

Jesé was born to Pascual Rodríguez, a pharmacy worker, and María Ruiz. When he joined Real Madrid at the age of 14, he made a promise to his father that he would help him retire by pursuing a career in football. The day after he signed his first professional contract with Real Madrid, Jesé's father was able to retire from the pharmacy at which he worked. He has the names of his parents tattooed on the back of his hands and in 2014 bought them a house in Gran Canaria. Jesé has four sons, Jesé Jr. (born 2012), Neizan (born 2016), Nyan (born 2017), Kenai (born 2019) and one daughter, Aylén (2020). He learned of the birth of his second son over social media platform Instagram after the mother of the child claimed that he was the father in a post in November 2016. A DNA test was conducted soon after which confirmed Jesé to be the father. Jesé's third son, Nyan was born prematurely in 2017 and suffered from a number of medical conditions from birth. The following year, he went through a public and acrimonious breakup with Nyan's mother, Aurah Ruiz, which culminated in Ruiz taking Jesé to court where she accused him of neglecting his duties as a father. He responded with a counter-suit against Ruiz for slander in which he allegedly asked that she pay "one Euro and be sentenced to three to five years in prison." In 2014, just a week after suffering a cruciate ligament injury with Real Madrid, Jesé had to be rescued when a suspected gas explosion set fire to the luxury apartment…