On 20 January 2022, Borja Mayoral Moya came on in the 84th minute of Getafe against Granada at the Coliseum and scored three minutes later. Getafe won 4-2, and that debut goal opened the longest spell of his career. Born in Parla, in the Madrid region, on 5 April 1997, Mayoral is a centre-forward who came through Real Madrid's academy. Before settling at Getafe, he played on loan in Germany, at Levante and at Roma.
From Parla to the Real Madrid academy
He started playing in 2004 at AD Parla, his hometown club. In 2007, aged ten, he joined Real Madrid's youth system and moved up through the age groups, reaching the Juvenil A side in 2014. He made his debut for Real Madrid Castilla on 18 January 2015, coming off the bench in a 1-0 Segunda División B win over Getafe B. He went on to play 38 games for the reserve side and scored 17 goals. That spring, shortly after turning eighteen, Carlo Ancelotti named him in a first-team squad for the first time, for a match against Almería, although he did not play.
Breaking into the Real Madrid first team
His official first-team debut came on 31 October 2015, when he replaced Toni Kroos late in a 3-1 home win over Las Palmas at the Santiago Bernabéu. He made his first start on 2 March 2016, away at Levante, after Karim Benzema was injured. After a season on loan in Germany he returned to Madrid, and on 17 September 2017 he scored his first goal for the club, the opener away to Real Sociedad. On 6 December that year he also scored in the Champions League, eight minutes into a 3-2 group-stage win over Borussia Dortmund. In all, he played 33 games and scored 7 goals for Real Madrid. He was part of the squads that won the 2017 UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup and the 2018 Champions League, although he did not play in the Club World Cup.
Wolfsburg and Levante
On 22 July 2016 Real Madrid loaned him to VfL Wolfsburg for the 2016-17 season. He debuted on 20 August in the German Cup, and his first Bundesliga appearance was a 1-0 defeat to RB Leipzig on 16 October. His first goal in Germany came on 3 December 2016, in a 3-2 home loss to Hertha Berlin. He finished the campaign with 21 appearances and 2 goals. In August 2018 he joined Levante on loan, and the deal was extended in July 2019. In Valencia he played two full seasons in the Spanish top flight, with 69 appearances and 14 goals in all competitions. His best league return there came in 2019-20, with 8 goals in 34 games.
Two seasons at Roma
On 2 October 2020 he joined AS Roma on a two-year loan, which cost €2 million and included an option to buy. His first season in Italy was the most prolific of his career to that point: 17 goals in 45 games, 10 in Serie A and 7 in the Europa League, where Roma reached the semi-finals. In 2021-22 he played less often. He made 11 appearances and scored once in the group stage of the Conference League, which Roma went on to win in May 2022, by which time he had left. His time in Rome ended with 56 appearances and 18 goals.
Getafe
On 13 January 2022 Roma cut the loan short so that he could join Getafe until the end of the season. Those six months brought 6 goals in 18 league games, starting with the one against Granada on his debut. On 1 August 2022 Getafe signed him permanently. His best season came in 2023-24, when he scored 15 La Liga goals, the highest top-flight tally of his career. He was the team's top scorer and won the Zarra Trophy, awarded to the leading Spanish scorer in the league. In March 2024 a knee injury kept him out for several months. In 2024-25 he scored 6 goals in 27 games.
Youth international career
Mayoral represented Spain at every level from under-17 to under-21. With the under-19s he played at the 2015 European Championship in Greece. He scored 3 goals and finished as the tournament's top scorer. He was named in the Team of the Tournament and also scored in the final, a 2-0 win over Russia that made Spain European under-19 champions. He made his under-21 debut on 7 October 2015 in a qualifier against Georgia. During qualifying for the 2019 European Championship he scored a hat-trick away to Northern Ireland. With the under-21s he was a European runner-up in 2017 and won the title in 2019. Across all youth teams he made 48 appearances and scored 29 goals.
Getafe record
In October 2025, having drawn level with Manu del Moral and Jaime Mata on 37 goals at San Mamés, he scored in a 2-1 win over Girona. That goal, his 38th in the top flight for the club, made him Getafe's all-time leading scorer in Spain's first division.
Getafe