Observers at Real Madrid’s Valdebebas training complex could be forgiven for wondering if there is something wrong with their hearing when they shout “Crouchy!” call. Crouchy!’ follow us across the training fields.
The shouts, which appear to come from England midfielder Jude Bellingham, are aimed at Joselu, the slender centre-forward who once shared a dressing room with Peter Crouch but somehow made his way from Stoke to the Santiago Bernabeu, where he will face on Tuesday Manchester City stands. night.
“Crouch was a great guy, very funny,” says Joselu. “He helped me a lot when I moved there. Jude started calling me that and others followed. I’m a tall striker and like to be on the end of a cross, but Crouch was two meters tall, I’m only 1.92!’
Stoke signed Joselu from Hannover for £5.75 million in 2015. There were high expectations for the then 25-year-old who had come through Real Madrid’s academy to make his debut for them under Jose Mourinho.
Despite only starting 10 games and scoring just four goals, he has fond memories of his year at the Potteries.
Joselu (photo) is enjoying life at Real Madrid and is part of the Spanish national team
It’s a far cry from his only season at Stoke, where he made just 10 starts, although he says he still enjoyed his time at the club.
Joselu also struggled at Newcastle but was full of praise for the club’s supporters and revealed how they drank his wedding dry
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‘We finished ninth and beat both Manchester City and United at home. It was a good year and no one liked playing against us.”
The competition up front: Bojan Krkic, Marko Arnautovic and Jonathan Walters, whom he says he loved ‘especially because of his fight and dedication’, limited his chances, but after a year on loan to Deportivo the following season, Newcastle paid Stoke £ 5 million for him.
“Just not normal,” is how he describes their support. ‘They took three or four thousand in every match and in preparation there would be three or four hundred with us, 3,000 km from Newcastle. The people treated me well there.’
He says family members enjoyed coming from Spain. ‘I took them down to the seaside for fish and chips and they loved it.’ But as with Stoke, starts and goals were limited and after two seasons he returned to Spain to sign for Alaves.
At 29, being down seemed like the only way to go. But after scoring double figures for struggling teams in his next four seasons, he earned this move to Real Madrid, scoring on his debut for Spain at the age of 33. Doesn’t it all feel like a dream?
‘It’s true that last year in Newcastle wasn’t good, so you have to let go of your expectations. I knew what I was capable of, but I also knew how I had played last year, so the offers that came in weren’t that big.
‘Alaves is an important club in Spain, but not at the level of Newcastle. I had no problem going there and doing my best and that helped me get to where I am today.
Joselu loves life in Spain and is still scoring goals at the age of 34
He has scored fourteen times this season, with Real Madrid on course to regain the Spanish title
‘It would have been easier to say: no! I’ve played at a higher level; I’m not falling down. I had signed for Newcastle for four years. I could have stayed and collected my money and not played, but I wanted to compete.”
So there is a question he is now in a unique position to answer: is it easier to score at Real Madrid (he has scored 14 goals this season) or at Stoke and Newcastle?
“It’s true that if you’re in a team with more ball possession, there are more attacks on goal,” he says. ‘But the pressure is great here. At Real Madrid you always play with the whole world watching you.
‘You have to keep a good head, because one day you are awake and the next day you miss opportunities. I think my experience, especially abroad, has helped me.’
And Bellingham has helped this season, too. In one match he looked on a one-man mission to beat Joselu, who had missed a host of chances, eventually allowing him to take fourth place in a win over Napoli.
“I had seen him play because I follow the Bundesliga,” says Bellingham’s Joselu. ‘But it’s true that the level he’s reached as a goalscorer, I don’t think anyone expected that. He’s in a different class. Physically he is a beast. But he is very humble and a very good teammate.
‘And he ended up at the club well, because from day one he tried to learn Spanish. He tried to talk to everyone. He is a modest boy. And that has touched the hearts of many people and makes him a very special person in the dressing room.
‘I have a good relationship with him because I learned English in England and was able to help him in the first few months. He is a special player and I think he can achieve anything he sets his mind to. Everyone we deal with would rather Jude not play.”
The fact that the goals for Bellingham had a lot of success saw Joselu Plan B for Real Madrid behind Plan A by playing the English man just behind Vinicius and Rodrygo.
Joselu has praised Jude Bellingham, calling him a ‘special player’, while also praising the England star for remaining ‘humble’
Alongside Man City’s Erling Haaland, Joselu proves that big centre-forwards are back in fashion
But he still believes he offers something completely different to the team and with even Pep Guardiola using Erling Haaland in his team, it is clear that big centre-forwards are back in fashion.
“There was a period when coaches played without a nine, but we were always hidden there,” he says. ‘The magic of football is that things don’t stay the same. If Guardiola plays the same way he played five years ago, the results might not have been the same.”
If Madrid choose not to pay the €2 million it will cost to keep him, there will be no shortage of players for the Spain international. Would he return to England for the third time?
It seems unlikely that his family has settled in Madrid, where his wife Melanie, who he says never supported him during the difficult times at Newcastle, is happy to live close to her twin sister Daphne, who is married to Joselu’s teammate Dani Carvajal.
“I try to follow Stoke,” he says. ‘It looks like they can’t get promoted but there are still people at the club that I know and I would like to see them back in the Premier League.
‘I had people from Stoke at my wedding. Also people from Newcastle.’ When asked how they behaved, he laughs: ‘Good, good! We turned off the beer taps at 2am!
Joselu is enjoying the best days of his career at one of the biggest clubs in world football
Real Madrid must now try to overtake Man City in the Champions League, and Joselu knows it will be difficult but is looking forward to the challenge
“You build a relationship with people who have been at the club for maybe 10 or 15 years, so as you go on you still really want them to do well.”
Will he ask someone at Stoke or Newcastle how to beat Manchester City?
“I don’t think it will be necessary,” he laughs. ‘It will be difficult, but very fun.’
He is now 34 and these are the best days of his career. “You always believe that if you get the chance, you will eventually be able to enjoy moments like this,” he says.