Three weeks ago Carlos Espí was a Levante striker who thought he was moving to England. On Wednesday he could start for Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu, and on Tuesday the Spain manager confirmed he is watching him.
Luis de la Fuente has put Carlos Espí on his radar for future La Roja squads, according to Bernabéu Digital, who quote the national-team boss confirming the forward’s name had already come up before the World Cup: “He was on the preliminary list for the World Cup.” De la Fuente went on to say that seeing Espí in a Spain shirt in the near future is a realistic prospect. For a 20-year-old who has been a Real Madrid player for less than a month, that is a remarkable rate of ascent.
What Carlos Espí Has Actually Done
The case is not built on hype. Espí finished pre-season as Madrid’s leading scorer, finding the net against Ferencváros and Schalke 04, and then came off the bench at the RCDE Stadium and won the LaLiga opener in stoppage time — a goal that turned one point into three in Mourinho’s first competitive match of his second spell.
Bernabéu Digital’s reading of his rise is that none of it should surprise anyone who watched Levante last season, where his finishing was one of the main reasons they stayed in the division. It was that season, not the last three weeks, that got him onto De la Fuente’s preliminary World Cup list.
The move itself was quick. Espí had all but agreed a Premier League switch, per Bernabéu Digital, and stopped the process the moment he learned Real Madrid were interested; by his own account the deal was done in four days. Madrid paid a reported €25m, and the inside story of how the signing came together has been one of the quiet successes of a busy window.
“A Goal Like Joselu Jr”
The dressing room has noticed. Asked about the winner at Espanyol, Jude Bellingham reached for the most Madridista compliment available to him. “Carlos Espí came off the bench and scored a goal like Joselu Jr,” Bellingham said, in quotes carried by The Real Champs.
Madridistas will not need that one explained. Joselu, the former Real Madrid striker whose two late goals against Bayern Munich in 2024 sent the club to a Champions League final it went on to win, is the patron saint of the useful substitute — a tall, physical presence in the box who existed to change a game in ten minutes. Losing that profile left Real Madrid without an obvious answer when a match got stubborn, and Espí is the first player since who looks like he might provide one.
It is a nickname and nothing more. But it is also the clearest sign yet of how the squad has decided to think about the new No. 9 — not as a project, as an option.
What Comes Next
Espí is in the squad for Real Sociedad, and with Endrick still out he is one of the few genuine centre-forward alternatives José Mourinho has available at the Bernabéu on Wednesday. Mourinho has praised his work rate and his attitude repeatedly since he arrived, which in this dressing room tends to be the currency that earns minutes.
Spain’s next competitive window is a long way from being the point. The point is that a striker Real Madrid signed in four days from a relegation-threatened side is now Madrid’s pre-season top scorer, the man who won Mourinho’s first game, a name Jude Bellingham compares to a Bernabéu folk hero and a forward the World Cup-winning national coach says he is monitoring. Carlos Espí has been at Real Madrid for a matter of weeks. He is already making himself hard to leave out.
