Jesé

Jesé Rodríguez Ruiz (; born 26 February 1993), known as Jesé, is a Spanish professional footballer who is currently on loan at Las Palmas from Stoke City. An academy graduate of Real Madrid, Jesé made his senior debut in 2011 and made 94 appearances across all competitions for the club, scoring 18 goals. He won two Champions League medals, as well as a title in each of La Liga, the FIFA Club World Cup and the Copa del Rey. Jesé left the club in 2016 to join Ligue 1 side PSG for a reported fee of €25m, before returning to Spain six months later.

About Jesé in brief

Jesé Rodríguez Ruiz (; born 26 February 1993), known as Jesé, is a Spanish professional footballer who is currently without a club after being released by Paris Saint-Germain. An academy graduate of Real Madrid, Jesé made his senior debut in 2011 and made 94 appearances across all competitions for the club, scoring 18 goals. He won two Champions League medals, as well as a title in each of La Liga, the FIFA Club World Cup and the Copa del Rey. Jesé is also a musician and goes by the stage name Jey M. He was previously part of a two-man reggaeton band which was formed in March 2014 and disbanded later that year. He has won 36 caps at youth level for Spain from under-16 to under-21 level, scoring 16 international goals and was part of the Spain U19 side which won the 2012 UEFA European Under-19 Championship and claimed the Golden Boot award for ending as the tournament’s top goalscorer. He is currently on loan at Las Palmas from Premier League side Stoke City and later Betis for the second half of the 2018–19 La Liga campaign. His agent state that they would need to study options for the player’s future if he was not permanently promoted to the first team the following year with the club. He previously played for Espanyol, Mallorca and Barcelona, but opted to sign for Real Madrid’s youth system in 2007, aged 14. In July 2011, he was selected by first-team manager José Mourinho for a pre-season tour of the United States and made his non-competitive debut against Los Angeles Galaxy, coming on as a 64th minute substitute for José Callejón and scoring in a 5–1 win.

The following season, after criticism that players from the Castilla side were not being given a fair chance, Mourinho stated that it was difficult to do so as the senior side played a different style to the reserves. He made 39 appearances and scored 10 goals for Castilla as the club was crowned Segunda División B champions. The senior side were also crowned champions ofLa Liga, having claimed the title with two games to spare in early May. In February 2013 Jesé spoke out in an interview with Marca about his lack of senior game, stating that he was confident he was doing well enough to be granted an opportunity. Club chairman Florentino Pérez and coach Alberto Torilino both defended Jesé for his comments, although the latter advised that he should learn to control his emotions. Jesé left the club in 2016 to join Ligue 1 side PSG for a reported fee of €25m, before returning to Spain six months later to join hometown club Las Palma on loan for the remainder of the season. He returned to Castilla for the start of the 2017–18 season and scored his first goal on 2 October 2011 against La Roda CF, finishing an assist from Álvaro Morata in a 4–2 away loss.