José Ángel Pozo · Biography

On 24 September 2014, Manchester City led Sheffield Wednesday 4-0 in the League Cup third round at the Etihad Stadium when Manuel Pellegrini sent on a Spanish attacking midfielder from Málaga for Yaya Touré in the 64th minute. His name was José Ángel Pozo la Rosa, and in the 88th minute he scored City’s sixth goal in a 7-0 win. It was his first-team debut. Pozo was born on 15 March 1996 in the province of Málaga. He stands 1.70 metres tall and plays as an attacking or central midfielder. After coming through the youth systems of Real Madrid and Manchester City, he played for Almería, Rayo Vallecano, Qatar’s Al Ahli, Cyprus’ Karmiotissa and two Polish clubs.

From Real Madrid to Manchester

Pozo played in Real Madrid’s youth teams up to under-16 level. In 2012 he joined Manchester City’s academy, and City also signed his younger brother, Iker Pozo. In England he worked his way up to the reserve team and played in two editions of the UEFA Youth League for City. In 2013-14 he made 4 appearances and scored once, and City went out to Benfica in the quarter-finals. An ankle injury restricted him to nine games in all that season. In 2014-15 he played 6 matches, scored 3 goals and saw City lose another quarter-final, this time against Roma.

Three League Games for City

His Premier League debut came on 3 December 2014 away at Sunderland. He replaced Samir Nasri in the 83rd minute of a 4-1 win for City. Ten days later he started a game for the first time, on 13 December at Leicester City, after Edin Džeko was injured during the warm-up. City won 1-0. He played only three league matches that season. He featured in friendlies against Melbourne City and the Vietnam national team in pre-season in 2015, but he was not in the first-team picture and left that summer.

Almería, 2015 to 2018

On 31 August 2015, the last day of the transfer window, he joined UD Almería in the Spanish second division for five seasons. He made his debut at home to Osasuna on 6 September. He came off the bench for Eldin Hadžić and, in the 88th minute, scored the winner in a 2-1 victory with a shot from outside the box. On 2 December that year he scored Almería’s only goal in a 3-1 home defeat by Celta Vigo in the Copa del Rey. Almería fought against relegation over the following seasons, and his goals against Albacete and Bilbao Athletic earned points in that fight. In three seasons he made 104 league appearances for Almería and scored 6 goals.

Six Years on Rayo Vallecano’s Books

On 27 July 2018 Rayo Vallecano announced that he had signed for five seasons. The Madrid club had just been promoted to La Liga, and Pozo made his top-flight debut on 19 August 2018. He started on the opening day, and Rayo lost 4-1 to Sevilla at Vallecas. Rayo were relegated at the end of that season and spent two years in the second division. Pozo was still in the squad in June 2021, when Andoni Iraola’s side won promotion by beating Girona 3-2 on aggregate in the play-off final. In January 2022 he joined Al Ahli of Doha on loan for the rest of the 2021-22 Qatar Stars League. He scored 4 goals in 9 games there. In all, he made 100 league appearances for Rayo and scored 9 goals.

Spain Youth Teams

Pozo represented Spain at every youth level from under-16 to under-21. He made 8 appearances for the under-17s and scored 3 goals. All three came in the elite qualifying round for the 2013 UEFA European Under-17 Championship, where he played 5 games. He also played 3 times for the under-18s in 2014 and twice for the under-19s in November of that year. He won his only under-21 cap in 2018.

Cyprus and Poland

After leaving Rayo in 2024, he moved to Cyprus and spent half a season with Karmiotissa. He scored 2 goals in 17 league games there. In the 2025 winter window he signed for Śląsk Wrocław in the Polish Ekstraklasa, playing 15 league games and scoring once. At the end of that campaign he changed clubs without leaving the Polish league: in the summer of 2025 he signed for Pogoń Szczecin.