This is Mateo Joseph’s season.
The 20-year-old is confident of that and he wears it well. It is confidence, not arrogance, stemming from an impressive breakthrough season in senior football and a summer of hard work that has put him in prime position to start on the opening day against Portsmouth.
Individual training before Leeds United returned for pre-season has set the Spaniard up well for his personal target of becoming Daniel Farke’s leading striker this season. After two goals scored in the FA Cup against Chelsea in January — where Joseph did not look out of place against Premier League opposition having previously made three appearances in his debut season in 2022-23 — his impact off the bench was impressive. Such was Joseph’s impact, particularly as Leeds’ automatic promotion hopes faltered towards the end of the campaign, that there were regular calls for him to start in place of Patrick Bamford.
But developing a talent like Joseph’s is an art and, after a four goal pre-season and a stellar performance in their final friendly against Valencia at Elland Road, he now feels more prepared than ever to step into the role of leading man.
“Pre-season has been tough, it’s been a lot of running but I like it because doing the training, I feel fit,” he told The Athletic. “It’s tough, it’s been hard but in order to be ready for the games we need to be like this. This is my season this year. I don’t want to sound too confident but I just can’t wait to prove it and I can’t wait for the season to start. I feel like this because I did everything I can to train and improve. I see the improvement now. When you do everything you can to take the opportunities you have to feel calm about it and trust yourself because there’s not anything else you can do.”
Handed the start against Valencia over Joel Piroe or Patrick Bamford, Joseph offered plenty both in terms of his hold up play and his movement as well as opening the scoring. It was a well earned chance to cement his place in the starting team following two goals against Hannover and one against Schalke from the trip to Germany and with only seven days to go until the first game of the season against Portsmouth. His development since joining Leeds from Espanyol in 2022 has been carefully managed and he has shown he is ready for an extended run in the first team, although Farke will be acutely aware of limiting the pressure on a player so young.
Joseph has broad shoulders and on field swagger to show he can take it in his stride, however, and has shown maturity in knowing a degree of patience coupled with that confidence will serve him well.
“They told me I have to be patient (for his first team chance rather than being sent on loan),” he says. “I thought it was a really good choice because you never know when you go to another place (on loan) what can happen. Everything happens for a reason and I’m really happy I stayed, was calm and was given the opportunity. I feel I took that every time they gave it to me. We have got a job to do now because we didn’t get promoted.
“I improved a lot during the season, I think you could see that as the games went on. Everyone wants to play every minute which is impossible but it was a good season for me to be in a professional team and to learn some things. We had a good team so it was difficult to get into it but I made my space and this year I am going for more.”
Joseph scores Leeds’ opening goal against Valencia (Photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Joseph has been working hard this summer, beginning individual work just four days after defeat at Wembley as, in his own words, he “couldn’t be still at home.” There was time for celebration when Spain beat England in the Euro 2024 final — Joseph arrived at Leeds training the following day in his Spain kit — although he was not able to join up with his country’s squad for the Paris Olympics on club orders.
After some back and forth between the possibility of representing England or Spain given his eligibility for both countries, Joseph went with his heart and the country of his birth by declaring for Spain last season. Committing to pre-season training instead of heading to the Olympics looks to have been a wise decision though based on how the past few weeks have unfolded.
Against Valencia he showed his eye for goal after picking up a pass from Georginio Rutter and going past a defender before coolly slotting home. It was typical number nine play, as was his hold up play and link-up during the 2-1 win. In a physical and feisty friendly, Joseph showed he could hold his own although the pressures and rigour of the Championship will be his next big test if handed the start next week.
“With Mateo it’s a special thing because he came here when he was really young,” Junior Firpo says of Joseph. “I’ve been with him all these years and I’ve seen him growing up to become the player that he is right now. It’s not just scoring lots of goals, he puts all the effort in. You can see him tracking back, defending with us, holding the ball, going on the counter. He has everything to be a really good striker so whatever we go with, if it’s Mateo, Patrick or Joel it’s really good options and we just have to work for them to try to bring them up the pitch. I’ll try to make the most assists for them as I can to score goals.”
As one final chance to impress manager Farke, Joseph did exactly what was required to put himself at the front of the queue for the starting line up on the opening day.
“The basics,” Farke said of what he wanted to see from Joseph. “That he works for the team, that he saves balls, makes good movements, pins the opponents, he is more or less the first attacker against the ball and leads out pressing. We always talk about triggers, when he should press, in which way he should press, how he should lead the game. In these terms he was brilliant. If you are a striker you want to be involved in end product and goals and assists. He had a pretty impressive pre-season so far and he delivered again today with a good performance.
“He was ice cold in front of the goal and with his workload he was important for us. We found a good mix today between him keeping the ball and stretching the opponent by running in behind so was definitely a good performance.”
