Jesé


Jesé Rodríguez Ruiz is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as winger or forward for Segunda División club UD Las Palmas.
An academy graduate of La Liga side Real Madrid, Jesé debuted for the senior team in 2011, making 94 appearances across all competitions for the club and scoring eighteen goals. During his time in Madrid, which was disrupted by a serious knee injury in 2014, 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 Paris Saint-Germain for a reported fee of €25 million, before returning to Spain six months later to join hometown club Las Palmas on loan for the remainder of the season. Jesé then joined Premier League side Stoke City on loan for the 2017–18 season, and later Real Betis for the second half of the 2018–19 La Liga campaign. After a brief loan spell with Primeira Liga club Sporting CP, Jesé left PSG to rejoin Las Palmas on a permanent deal.
On the international stage, Jesé earned 36 caps at youth level for Spain from under-16 to under-21 level, scoring sixteen goals overall. He 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.
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.

Club career

Real Madrid

Early career

Born in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Jesé began his football career with local team Huracán in 2005, whom he joined from amateur side El Pilar. His form at youth level for the club saw him attract interest from La Liga sides Espanyol, Mallorca and Barcelona, but he opted to sign for Real Madrid's youth system in 2007, aged 14. Jesé made his senior debut for the Real Madrid Castilla side on 16 January 2011 in a 5–0 Segunda División B home win over Universidad de Las Palmas. His performance throughout the match, which included an assist for Dani Carvajal, drew early comparisons to fellow Real Madrid teammate and multiple Ballon d'Or winner, Cristiano Ronaldo. Jesé spent most of the season with Real Madrid's Juvenil A team, however, and enjoyed a successful 2010–11 campaign which earned him a permanent promotion to the Castilla side.

2011–13: Youth and entrance to the first team squad

In July 2011, Jesé was selected by first-team manager José Mourinho for the club's pre-season tour of the United States and made his non-competitive debut for Real Madrid in a friendly against Los Angeles Galaxy, coming on as a 64th minute substitute for José Callejón and scoring in a 5–1 win. He returned to the Castilla for the start of the season and scored his first goal on 2 October 2011 against La Roda, finishing an assist from Álvaro Morata in a 4–2 away loss. Having impressed with the reserve side during the first half of the season, Jesé was handed his senior debut on 12 December in the first round of the Copa del Rey, replacing Ronaldo for the final fifteen minutes of a 2–0 away triumph over SD Ponferradina. After the match Jesé dedicated his debut to his family who had supported him in fulfilling his dream. He made his first La Liga appearance on 24 March 2012, once again replacing Ronaldo for the last ten minutes of a 5–1 home win over Real Sociedad. Aside from his two senior appearances, Jesé 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 of La Liga, having claimed the title with two games to spare in early May.
The following season, after criticism that players from the Castilla 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 also highlighted the position Jesé was being played in as one that did not exist in the main squad. Jesé's lack of opportunity prompted agent Ginés Carvajal
to publicly 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 guarantee he would receive more playing time. In February 2013, in an interview with Marca, Jesé spoke out against his lack of senior game, stating that he was confident he was doing well enough to be granted an opportunity and, while he tried to learn as much as he could from Mourinho, he was a manager who surrounded himself with players who had already made their name. Club chairman Florentino Pérez and B-side coach Alberto Toril both defended Jesé for his comments, although the latter advised that he should learn to control his emotions.
In spite of his struggles in breaking into the first-team, Jesé continued to excel for the Castilla and on 2 June he broke the record for most goals scored in a single season for the reserve side, netting a solo goal in a 4–0 home win over AD Alcorcón to surpass the record of 21 goals set by Emilio Butragueño in 1983–84. Jesé's success drew praise from Pérez who described him as the jewel in the crown of Los Blancos' academy. He ended the season with 22 goals to his name in 38 appearances, earning the Zarra Trophy for the top Spanish goalscorer in the league, and on 18 June reiterated his desire to stay at Real Madrid in order to fight for a place in the first team.

2013–16: Rising influence, injury and decline

While at the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup with Spain, Jesé was the subject of mass media speculation that he could be leaving Real Madrid following his lack of game-time with the first team the season before. The club's technical director, Miguel Pardeza, categorically stated on 13 July that the player would remain at the club, however, and Jesé extended his contract for a further four years later in the same month, signing a deal worth more than €1 million a year and which contained a €200 million release clause.
Jesé was handed his Champions League debut on 2 October 2013 by new club manager Carlo Ancelotti, coming on as an 81st-minute substitute for Karim Benzema in a 4–0 group stage victory over Copenhagen. He scored his first competitive goal for Real Madrid in his first El Clásico appearance on 26 October, netting in injury-time from a Ronaldo assist in a 2–1 loss at Barcelona. On 23 November, Jesé came on as a second-half substitute against UD Almería and contributed with his first two assists for the first team in a 5–0 away win. He enjoyed a fine run of form between the back end of 2013 and March 2014, where he netted a late winner at Valencia, scored his first Copa del Rey goal in a 2–0 win over CA Osasuna and netted in league encounters against Athletic Bilbao, Villarreal and Getafe. On 18 March, however, just two minutes into Real Madrid's Champions League's round-of-16 second leg game against Schalke, Jesé suffered a complete tear of the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee following a challenge from Sead Kolašinac and was sidelined for the remainder of the season. He ended the season with 5 goals and 4 assists to his name in 18 league appearances, and 8 goals in 31 matches across all competitions as Real Madrid went on to lift the Copa Del Rey and Champions League trophies.
After spending nine months on the sidelines, Jesé returned from injury for the second leg of Real Madrid's tie against UE Cornellà in the Copa del Rey round of 32 on 2 December 2014, replacing Sami Khedira after 57 minutes and scoring the last goal of a 9–1 aggregate victory. On his injury, Jesé stated: "I had a very tough time, but I think that things in life happen for a reason. Maybe I had the injury because I needed to learn and become a more mature footballer." Later that month he was included in the club's squad which won the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan, making a substitute appearance in a 4–0 win over Cruz Azul in the semi-finals. He scored the first of his three La Liga goals for the season on 4 February 2015 in a 2–1 victory over Sevilla. Jesé struggled to break back into the first team following his injury though, starting only 3 of his 23 appearances for the season, and by the end of the campaign it was reported that he had grown frustrated at the club and was looking to leave in the summer.
Jesé opted to remain in Madrid for the 2015–16 season as he sought to break into the first team under new club manager Rafa Benítez. However, he found competition for places tough and was limited to just 1252 minutes of football across all competitions under Benítez and his successor, Zinedine Zidane. In spite of his lack of game time, Jesé still managed to contribute 6 goals and 8 assists for the season and was regularly used as a back-up in the team's triumphant 2015–16 UEFA Champions League campaign.
It would ultimately be Jesé's final season at the club as at the end of the season, with one year remaining on his contract, he agreed to sign for reigning Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain. He made 63 La Liga appearances for Real Madrid during his ten-year stay at the Santiago Bernabeu, of which 49 were substitute appearances, and scored 13 goals. In total, across all competitions, Jesé amassed 96 appearances and 18 goals for the club, departing with two Champions League titles and one apiece in La Liga, the Copa Del Rey and the Club World Cup to his name.

Paris Saint-Germain

On 8 August 2016, Jesé joined French side Paris Saint-Germain on a five-year deal for a reported transfer fee of €25 million. The deal included an 'anti-Barcelona' clause which prevented PSG from selling Jesé to Real Madrid's fierce La Liga rivals Barcelona in the future. He made his debut on 13 August, coming on as a substitute for Hatem Ben Arfa in a 1–0 away win over Bastia. Jesé was ruled out for a short period soon thereafter as a result of him suffering from appendicitis. Following his return, he scored his first goal for the club on 19 November, netting from the penalty-spot in a 2–0 win over Nantes. He made his Coupe de la Ligue debut on 14 December and scored the third goal in a 3–1 win over Lille.
Jesé struggled to settle in Paris, however, and by the end of the year he had only started in one of his nine league appearances for the club. His lack of form and infrequent game time, which totaled 358 minutes, prompted manager Unai Emery to suggest that he would be leaving the club during the January transfer window in order to rediscover his form.