European dreams coming true for Real Madrid's Joselu and opponents Union Berlin

On the last day of the 2010/11 season, Joselu Mato had his breakthrough moment. Or so he imagined. He had recently turned 21, had devoted his teenaged years to climbing the ladder of professional football and to making it in the hardest of positions. He wanted to be a striker at the most decorated club in the history of the European game.

Joselu, who was born in Germany because his parents were working there, did most of his growing up in Galicia, Spain’s western corner. He duly enrolled at local club Celta Vigo. He made a good enough impression that Real Madrid scouted and signed him as a prospect, putting him into the upper levels of their youth academy.

When Jose Mourinho joined Madrid as head coach in 2010, he was handed a positive report on Joselu’s performances for Real Madrid B. Mourinho noted it but when he sought stronger back-up at centre-forward to Gonzalo Higuain and Karim Benzema, who led the queue to play inside Cristiano Ronaldo, he went for experience rather than internal promotion, signing Emmanuel Abdebayor in that winter’s transfer window.

Mourinho, Adebayor, Higuain. Names from long ago in Madrid terms. And Joselu was just a tiny footnote from that 2010-11 season. He made his first team debut on its last weekend, a substitute brought on for Benzema with six minutes left against Almeria. Madrid were winning 7-1. Ronaldo promptly steered a fine, floated cross in his direction. Joselu finished confidently: 8-1.

He would score on his Copa del Rey debut, the following December, even more rapidly. Off the bench against lower-division Ponferradina in the 78th minute, again replacing Benzema, he almost immediately struck the fourth goal of a 5-1 victory.

And that was the last the first-team saw of Joselu as a