Real Madrid hero leaves future open with talks to begin at the end of the season

Real Madrid’s Champions League hero Joselu Mato was not giving anything away about his future this summer, two days after securing their passage to the final against Bayern Munich. The 33-year-old is on loan from Espanyol, but Los Blancos have a €1.5m buy option in his contract.

It seemed as if Real Madrid were edging towards hanging onto Joselu this summer, but with Endrick Felipe and Kylian Mbappe due to arrive at the Santiago Bernabeu, it has cast some doubt on the necessity of the Spanish international, who is a candidate to go to the Euros. Speaking at a World Padel Tour event, Joselu told Marca that he was not thinking about his future currently.

“I’m enjoying what’s happened to me these days and I’m already focused on tomorrow. Staying at Real Madrid? We will talk about it at the end of the season,” Joselu said.

The veteran striker has 20 goal contributions in his 46 appearances, but many of those were off the bench. Joselu has the best goals to minutes ratio of anyone in the Real Madrid squad, notching once every 119 minutes. Following the departure of Karim Benzema, Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior have taken on some of the goalscoring burden, but Joselu has had a big impact on their season too. A number of clubs are interested in Joselu, but he is prioritising a stay at the Bernabeu.