Borja Mayoral Moya (born 5 April 1997) is a Spanish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a striker for

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

club

Getafe Getafe () is a municipalities in Spain, municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality. Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city c ...

. Formed at

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

from the age of 10, Mayoral made his first-team debut in 2015 after featuring for the reserves in

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

. He was also loaned to Levante and

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...

in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

, and Roma in

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

. Mayoral represented Spain up to under-21 level, earning 48

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

and scoring 29 goals. He was top scorer as the under-19 team won the 2015 European Championship, and was a 2017 runner-up and 2019 winner with the under-21 team.

Club career

Real Madrid

Born in

Parla Parla () is a municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain. It is located in the southern part of the region, approximately 20 km from the capital, Madrid. History Origins Earliest evidence of human occupation includes stone tools m ...

in the

Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities and 50 provinces of Spain, provinces of Spain. It is located at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula and Meseta Central, Central Plateau (); its capital and largest munici ...

, Mayoral joined

's youth setup in 2007, after starting out at his hometown club AD Parla. In 2014, he was included in the latter's '' Juvenil A'' squad, and also scored seven goals in the

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the under-19 teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Le ...

, including a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

in a 6–0 group stage win over

PFC Ludogorets Razgrad Professional Football Club Ludogorets 1945 (), commonly known as Ludogorets Razgrad or simply Ludogorets, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Razgrad, which currently competes in the First Professional Football League ...

and the team's goal in their 1–1 draw with FC Porto Juniors in the last 16, being their only player to convert his opportunity in their

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

exit. On 18 January 2015, Mayoral made his senior debut for the reserves, coming on as a 74th-minute substitute for Álvaro Jiménez in a 1–0

win over Getafe CF B. As a half-time replacement for Cristian Benavente on 25 April, he scored his first goal for the team in a 2–2 draw with Sestao River Club at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stéfano. Four days later, having amassed 43 goals for different teams over the season, Mayoral was an unused substitute in the main team's 3–0

home win over

UD Almería Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish professional football club based in Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 26 July 1989 and known as ''Almería Club de Fútbol'' until 2001 ...

. On 4 May, he scored twice in a 3–1 win over

Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta Vigo, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues), the club was fou ...

in the quarter-finals of the División de Honor Juvenil, and thirteen days later he concluded his reserve season by scoring the only goal in Castilla's win over

CD Toledo Club Deportivo Toledo, S.A.D. is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Toledo, Spain, Toledo, in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. Founded in 1928 it plays in , holding home games at ''Estadio Salto del Cab ...

. He was sent off on 27 June at the end of the 2–1 loss to Rayo Vallecano in the final of the 2015 Copa del Rey Juvenil at the

Estadio Alfonso Murube Estadio Alfonso Murube is a association football, football stadium in the autonomous city of Ceuta, Spain in Northern Africa. It is the home stadium of AD Ceuta FC, who currently play in Segunda División B, Segunda División B - Group 4, with a c ...

Ceuta Ceuta (, , ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain#Autonomous cities, autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta is one of th ...

, for attacking an opponent. On 22 August 2015, Mayoral opened the 2015–16 season with a brace in a 5–1 home routing of CD Ebro. On 31 October he finally made his first team debut, replacing

Toni Kroos Toni Kroos (born 4 January 1990) is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Widely regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, he was known for his vision, pinpoint precision passing, crossing, and set-p ...

in the last minutes of a 3–1 home success over

UD Las Palmas Unión Deportiva Las Palmas S.A.D. is a professional association football, football club based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. The club will compete in Segunda División, the 2nd division in the Spanish football league syst ...

. Returning to the reserves, on the following 16 January he scored his first senior

in a 4–0 home rout of CF Rayo Majadahonda. On 2 March 2016, due to injury to

Karim Benzema Karim Mostafa Benzema (born 19 December 1987) is a French professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for and Captain (association football), captains Saudi Pro League club Al-Ittihad Clu ...

, manager

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; ; ''Zineddin Lyazid Zidan''; ; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as an attacking midfi ...

gave Mayoral his first start for Real Madrid against

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 6 September 1909, the club will compete in La Liga for the 2025– ...

; he took a shot that went in as an

own goal An own goal occurs in sports when a player performs actions that result in scoring points for the opposition, such as when a Association football, footballer puts a ball into their own net. In some parts of the world, the term has become a met ...

by goalkeeper Diego Mariño in a 3–1 win at the Estadi Ciutat de València. On the last day of the reserves' season, he scored twice in a 6–1 win against

La Roda CF La Roda Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football club based in La Roda, in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. Founded in 1996 it plays in , holding home games at ''Estadio Municipal de Deportes'', which has a capacity of 3,000 spectato ...

, winning the group at

Barakaldo CF Barakaldo Club de Fútbol is a Basque football team based in Barakaldo, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Founded in 1917 it plays in , holding home stadium is '' Lasesarre'', with a 7,960 Seat Capacity. History Barakaldo pla ...

's expense.

Loan to Wolfsburg

On 22 July 2016, Mayoral was loaned to

team

Wolfsburg Wolfsburg (; Eastphalian language, Eastphalian: ''Wulfsborg'') is the fifth-largest city in the Germany, German state of Lower Saxony, on the river Aller (Germany), Aller east of Hanover and west of Berlin. Wolfsburg is famous as the locat ...

for the upcoming season. He made his debut on 20 August in the first round of the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

, replacing goalscorer Bas Dost for the final seven minutes of a 2–1 win at

FSV Frankfurt Fußballsportverein Frankfurt 1899 e.V., commonly known as simply FSV Frankfurt and known as simply Frankfurt, is a German association football club based in the Bornheim district of Frankfurt am Main, Hessen and founded in 1899. FSV Frankfurt ...

. On 16 October, he played his first league game for the ''Wolves'', entering in the 77th minute in place of

Luiz Gustavo Luiz Gustavo Dias (born 23 July 1987) is a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who plays for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club São Paulo FC, São Paulo. He began his career as a left-back, but has played mostly as a defen ...

in a 0–1 home loss to

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig or informally as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company ...

, and scored his first goal on 3 December to open a 3–2 home loss to Hertha Berlin.

Return to Madrid

In August, Mayoral was named Most Valuable Player of the 2017 Major League Soccer All-Star Game for scoring Real Madrid's goal in their penalty shootout victory at

Soldier Field Soldier Field is a multi-purpose stadium on the Near South Side, Chicago, Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1924 and reconstructed in 2003, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears from the National ...

, Chicago. Mayoral started his first game after his return to Madrid on 17 September 2017 away to

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

. He scored the team's opening goal, his first senior goal for Real Madrid. In December 2017, he was part of the squad that won the

2017 FIFA Club World Cup The 2017 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2017 presented by Alibaba Cloud for sponsorship reasons) was the 14th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament betwee ...

in the United Arab Emirates, but did not play. During the

2017–18 UEFA Champions League The 2017–18 UEFA Champions League was the 63rd season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 26th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was pl ...

, he made four appearances, while scoring one goal, when Madrid won their third consecutive and 13th overall Champions League title.

Loan to Levante

On 31 August 2018, Mayoral was loaned to fellow top division side Levante for the season. He scored his first goal on 9 December in a 4–4 draw with Eibar. The loan was extended for another season on 29 July 2019. He recorded his best La Liga figures of eight goals in 34 games in 2019–20, starting with a 3–2 loss at his parent club on 14 September and also including a 3–1 home win over leaders

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

on 2 November.

Loan to Roma

On 2 October 2020, Real Madrid loaned Mayoral to Roma until 30 June 2022. The loan fee was €2 million, with the option to buy for €15 million in the first year or €20 million in the second. He scored 10 goals in 31 games in his first

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

as they came 7th, including braces in home an away victories over

Crotone Crotone (; ; or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Calabria, Italy. Founded as the Achaean colony of Kroton ( or ; ), it became a great Greek city, home of the renowned mathematician-philosopher Pythagoras amongst other famous citizens, and one ...

and a 4–3 home victory over Spezia. He was joint top scorer with 7 goals in 13 appearances in the

2020–21 UEFA Europa League The 2020–21 UEFA Europa League was the 50th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 12th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. Villarreal defeated Manchester United i ...

, including braces against

Cluj Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

in the group stage and Shakhtar Donetsk in the last 16. In 2021–22, Mayoral played almost only as a substitute under new manager

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix (; born 26 January 1963) is a Portuguese professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Süper Lig club Fenerba ...

. He contributed one goal to their victorious run in the inaugural

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual association football, football competition organised since 2021 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European foot ...

, in a 3–2 dead rubber group win away to

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sports Club of the Army'' ...

Loan to Getafe

On 13 January 2022, Mayoral returned to his home province, with La Liga team

taking over the rest of his loan. He played all 18 remaining games of the season as the team moved away from relegation, scoring six times including three minutes into his debut in a 4–2 home win over

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

on 20 January, and both of a win at Celta Vigo on 20 April.

Getafe

On 1 August 2022, Mayoral permanently joined Getafe, signing a five-year contract. In the 2023–24 season, he became the top scorer for his club, as he also set a new personal best in La Liga by scoring 15 goals.

International career

Mayoral scored in each of

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

's three qualification matches for the 2015 European Under-19 Championship: two in a 5–0 rout of

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and other goals in victories over rivals

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and hosts

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. At the finals in Greece, he finished as top scorer with three goals, including one in the 2–0 final win over

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

as Spain sealed a seventh title in the category, and made the Team of the Tournament. On 7 October 2015, Mayoral made his debut for the under-21 team in a

qualification Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

match away to Georgia for the 2017 European Championship; he replaced Samu Castillejo with an hour played, and nine minutes later converted

Saúl Ñíguez Saul is a masculine given name of Hebrew language, Hebrew origin. It is the English form of ''שָׁאוּל‎'', the Hebrew name of the Biblical King Saul. The name translates to "asked for/borrowed". People named Saul include: * Saul Adadi (1 ...

's assist in a 5–2 comeback victory. He scored a hat-trick away at Northern Ireland U21 in

Group 2 The term Group 2 may refer to: * Alkaline earth metal The alkaline earth metals are six chemical elements in group (periodic table), group 2 of the periodic table. They are beryllium (Be), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), strontium (Sr), barium (B ...

of the following U21 Euros qualifying campaign.

Style of play

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

writer Rob Train predicted in August 2015 that Mayoral could become the new Raúl, another forward produced at Real Madrid's academy. Richard Martin of UEFA.com described Mayoral as "an unapologetic scavenger".

complimented Mayoral as well, when he said, that "Mayoral's a striker who scores every time he has a shot". Mayoral himself has cited Raúl and

as his inspirations.

Personal life

Mayoral's older brother Cristian is also a footballer. An

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

, he was an

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

youth graduate. Mayoral was diagnosed with

type 1 diabetes Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the body's immune system destroys pancreatic cells (beta cells). In healthy persons, beta cells produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone require ...

at the age of 4 after showing excessive thirst. In April 2020, he and fellow Spanish footballer Sergi Samper spoke of their isolation during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

due to their condition. He and Real Madrid teammate Nacho were made honorary patrons of the DiabetesCERO charity, for which they auctioned their shirts from the 2017 Supercopa de España.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Real Madrid *

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

: 2017–18 *

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup (FIFA CWC) is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global sports governing body, governing body. The compe ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Roma *

: 2021–22 Spain U19 *

UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply the Euro Under-19, is an annual football competition, contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Spain is the most successful team in this competit ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Spain U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the comp ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

; runner-up:

Individual *UEFA European Under-19 Championship top scorer:

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

top scorer: 2020–21 (joint – seven goals) *

Zarra Trophy The Zarra Trophy is a trophy awarded annually by the Spanish sports daily '' Marca'' to the Spanish domestic player with the highest goal total in La Liga. It is named after the former Athletic Bilbao striker Telmo Zarra. It was awarded for th ...

: 2023–24

References

External links

Profile
at the Getafe CF website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayoral, Borja 1997 births Living people People from Parla Footballers from the Community of Madrid Spanish men's footballers Men's association football forwards Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Madrid CF players Getafe CF footballers Levante UD footballers AS Roma players VfL Wolfsburg players La Liga players Segunda División B players Bundesliga players Serie A players Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Italy People with type 1 diabetes UEFA Conference League–winning players UEFA Champions League–winning players 21st-century Spanish sportsmen