When he came to Frankfurt, I played. Now he’s at Real Madrid, Kadlec doesn’t understand former teammate Joselu

This year, at the age of 32, he made his debut for the Spanish national team and scored immediately, while ten years ago he watched Václav Kadlec play for Eintracht Frankfurt from the bench. The story of the striker Joselu is not only entertaining in Spain.

Václav Kadlec left for Frankfurt in the summer of 2013 after a successful engagement at Sparta, but on the other hand he was still a twenty-one-year-old Czech with no foreign experience. Moreover, Eintracht was no midget, on the contrary, they were supposed to play Europa League in 2013/14 season.

That’s why the club’s management brought in one more striker – two years older Spaniard Joselu. He grew up playing football at Celta Vigo, but he also had a peek at Real Madrid’s academy. And he even made two starts for the A-team, with one goal and an assist.

Kadlec made the most of a good start ahead of Joselu

Perhaps a little surprisingly, the Czech striker started as the offensive number one. In the first eight games, he struck four times and assisted twice, thus booking his place in the line-up for the autumn. In the first 11 rounds, Joselu’ s competitor made only three appearances.

“When I came to Frankfurt, he didn’t play and didn’t even go to the bench. I was playing, fighting. He didn’t speak German or much English, he was talking to Peruvians,” Kadlec explained on the Off the Field podcast.

The second half of the season was already different. After seven rounds without a win, the coach decided to make a change, and in December the Spaniard started playing and ran the show. In the last 21 rounds of the season he scored nine goals, assisted twice and made Kadlec a substitute.

The losing streak was stopped by Espanyol

While the Czech striker stayed at Frankfurt, Joselu made his way to Hanover, then on to Espanyol Barcelona via Stoke City, La Coruña, Newcastle and Alavés. One successful season of 17 goals and three assists and Joselu is back in Madrid after 11 years.

And although he is sometimes accused of throwing away big chances, statistically he is not bad. In 25 games he has scored nine goals, assisted twice and is a member of the Spanish national team. But that doesn’t change the fact that he had the Czech striker’s back at the beginning in Frankfurt.

“There was no indication that he would return to Real Madrid, but a few years have passed and he is back,” Kadlec added.

Source: Off the pitch, Transfermarkt