Joselu’s Stoke teammates included the ‘next Lionel Messi’ and rival Roy Keane – he’s now in the Champions League final with Jude Bellingham

Real Madrid’s Champions League hero Joselu’s rise to stardom happened almost overnight.

But the striker’s journey had humble beginnings.

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The 34-year-old is on loan to Real Madrid from Espanyol until the end of this season.

And the Spaniard has been a huge asset – scoring 17 times in 47 appearances for the club.

Two of those goals proved particularly vital: Joselu’s late brace against Bayern Munich earned his side a place in the Champions League final.

He has certainly come a long way since his two spells in the Premier League, where he played with Stoke City in the 2015/16 season and with Newcastle from 2017 to 2019.

The striker has not enjoyed much success with Stoke City, scoring just four goals in the 27 appearances he has made for the Potters.

But since his departure in 2017, Joselu’s career appears to have taken an upward trajectory, with the Champions League final expected to be the absolute pinnacle.

However, not all of his former Stoke teammates have taken the same path, with some familiar names appearing in the line-up that featured in Joselu’s last game with the club against West Ham in 2016.

One of Joselu’s former teammates was a player who had already won the Champions League by the time he joined Stoke City.

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It was none other than Bojan Krkic – a player often touted as “the next Messi” as he made his name by breaking all kinds of records during his four years at Barcelona as a teenager.

Not only did he become the youngest player to play for Barcelona in a La Liga match, but he also became the club’s youngest goalscorer in a league match.

In the Champions League, he also won the title of youngest player to score in the knockout stages – and at the end of the 2007/08 season it was revealed that he had broken the record for the most of goals scored by a player in a competition. first season.

Bojan won everything with Barcelona before being bought by Roma in 2011.

His career eventually took him to Stoke City in 2014, where his play was inconsistent and marred by injuries.

After leaving Stoke in 2019, the trajectory of his career appears to have been the opposite of Joselu’s and he eventually retired in March 2023.

Another teammate of Joselu’s was former striker and current Stoke City sporting director Jonathan Walters.

Walters spent seven years at Stoke, scoring 62 goals in 271 games before moving to Burnley and finishing his career with a loan spell at Ipswich.

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But the striker is also well known for the public feud he was involved in with former Manchester United star Roy Keane.

The pair faced off in 2018 when Keane was assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland and Walters was one of the team’s players.

The dispute began after a leaked WhatsApp voice note showing Keane criticizing Walters for not attending national team training.

Keane also criticized Walters for a television interview he did on The Late Late Show, in which he accused Walters of “crying on television about his family situation”.

Walters had spoken in this interview about the deaths of his mother and brother. his wife’s miscarriage and his daughter’s diagnosis of scoliosis.

Speaking to talkSPORT in January 2024, Walters had his own say on the conflict.

He said: “The Irish thing was ridiculous, he was assistant manager of a national team, you’re preparing for a game in France, and it was wrong.

“He came back with that because I’m the only player who got the better of him, not just once but twice, and he knows it, and that’s probably what pisses him off.”

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Joselu only overlapped with Walters for two seasons – but he wasn’t the only Irish teammate he had at Stoke.

He also crossed paths with former Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given, who retired from football shortly after Joselu’s move to Spain.

Given only made eight appearances for Stoke, but he will be best remembered for the 134 Irish national team appearances he made.

The goalkeeper was also part of the Manchester City team that won the FA Cup in 2011, although his playing time was limited by Joe Hart.