No less than 20 novilleros took the alternativa during the European temporada of 2022 - an increase of seven such ceremonies compared to the number carried out in the last full pre-pandemic season of 2019 and six more than occurred in 2018.

New matadors can usually be divided into three categories - those with the backing, momentum and talent that offer them a reasonable chance of success in the near future; those who are likely to struggle to gain contracts in the upper echelon, but who are serious about their new career and may (like such as Emilio de Justo and Octavio Chacón before them) come good in time and find their place in ferias; and those who regard, or may come to regard, obtaining the status of matador de toros as the culmination of their time with the bulls - they’ve already had a difficult time to get to this point, and the prospects of achieving contracts and success as a matador in the future are slim. Let’s examine the class of 2022 and speculate on their likely destinies.

Real prospects

Of the 20 new matadors, just two stand out - Isaac Fonseca and Manuel Diosleguarde.

Managed to date by ex-matador Carlos Aragón Cancela, Isaac Fonseca is a 24-year-old Mexican, born in Morelia, who joined the escuela taurina of Michoacán at the age of 11. Seven years later, in 2016, he made his debut sin picadores, then journeyed to Spain in 2018 as one of Mexico’s most promising novilleros. He enrolled in Aragón Cancela’s bullfight school at Colmenar Viejo and ended the year as the triunfador of the sin pics certamen «Camino hacia Las Ventas». Isaac debuted with picadors at Gijón in August 2019, and had a number of triumphs that year before the pandemic put a stop to any appearances in 2020. The following season saw him finish second in the escalafón de novilleros having fought 21 novilladas and cut 43 ears and three tails: he won Villaseca de la Sagra’s ‘Alfarero de Oro’ and was adjudged triunfador in la Liga Nacional de Novilladas following a final when he appeared alongside Manuel Perera, Manuel Diosleguarde and Jorge Martínez.

He has the look of a street urchin and his style is a bit rough-and-ready, like an incipient Andrés Roca Rey, but there is no doubting his ambition, bravery and willingness to torear close to his bulls. This season, he increased his standing, going out on shoulders at Valencia, Sevilla and Pamplona and cutting an ear in Madrid before taking the alternativa from José María Manzanares at Dax on August 11. He ended the temporada with a two-ear performance while confirming his alternativa at Nîmes, but was unfortunate with the sword in Valencia’s October 12 corrida concurso before leaving to torear in Mexico.

23-year-old Manuel Francisco García Diosleguarde is an alumno of Salamanca’s escuela taurina. His debut with picadors was at Ledesma in 2018, and on July 23 this year at Santander he took the alternativa at the hands of Alejandro Talavante with Pablo Aguado as testigo, leaving the plaza on shoulders after cutting an ear from each of his bulls.

Just over a month later, on August 28 at Cuéllar in his fourth corrida de toros, the lanky Diosleguarde suffered the most serious cornada of the temporada. Whilst killing a bull of Cebada Gago, Manuel was caught in his right thigh and pivoted on the horn for some time before falling to the ground; the end result was a 25-centimetre cornada muy grave that cut the femoral artery and inflicted a number of trajectories. After he was rushed to the plaza infirmary, his cuadrilla collected the two ears awarded to him, to make a total of three that afternoon. Four operations - the first lasting five hours - followed for the matador, who was not released from hospital until October 4. A winter of recuperation is ahead of him, Diosleguarde showing every intention to perform in the future as strongly as he did before: “This cornada has made me stronger,” he has commented, “both as a man and as a matador.”

Long shots

This category features those new matadors who are lacking a major success or momentum generally, perhaps an important manager, but who give every indication they want to make a go of a career in the upper echelon. They may, in time, rise to the top - or, more likely for the majority of them, will struggle on for a few years trying to get opportunities in front of toros bravos before calling it a day.

Diosleguarde’s Salamancan rival, 24-year-old Antonio Grande, took the alternativa at the season’s end at Ledesma on October 16 with Morante de la Puebla as padrino and Daniel Luque as testigo. The new matador cut four ears, all three espadas going out on shoulders. Grande entered Salamanca’s escuela taurina in 2010 and won the bolsines of Ciudad de Rodrigo and Ledesma four years later. He debuted with picadors at Salamanca in 2017, cutting three ears and, unusually for a novillero, was pronounced triunfador de la feria. If we are to compare Diosleguarde and Grande with Salamanca’s other great rivals, Niño de la Capea and Julio Robles, Grande is more in the Robles mould. He will probably need a success in Madrid to break out of being a local torero in the Salamanca area.

Carlos Olsina (26) has a similar problem, although in his case his local area is France (although not his home - he lives in Gerena), which has its advantages in terms of reputation-building. From Béziers, he first appeared in public in 2012, going on to win the Bolsín de La Muleta de Arles in 2014 and ‘15 before debuting with picadors in his home town in 2017. The Frenchman narrowly failed to leave Las Ventas through its puerta grande after two strong faenas there in 2019. José María Manzanares gave him the alternativa (with Paco Ureña as testigo) at Istres on June 18, when Olsina cut two ears. The idea was to get further contracts as the season progressed, but his manager, former matador Swan Soto, only managed to obtain two more appearances for his charge after that.

With a tally of five ears cut in Las Ventas as a novillero behind him, Rafael González (23) took his alternativa during the San Isidro feria with Juan Leal as his padrino and Joaquín Galdós the testigo. He received a 20cm cornada grave while giving bernadinas to his opening bull, tried to continue, but was persuaded by Leal to go to the infirmary instead. He fought one more corrida in 2022, at Griñón (Madrid) just over a fortnight later, winning two ears. After debuting with picadors at Villaseca de la Sagra in 2016, González’s contract numbers increased each year until 2020 when Covid struck, while an injury en campo put paid to any appearances in 2021. Managed by Julian Guerra, Rafael is likely to continue to be featured at Las Ventas in the foreseeable future, which gives him a chance of broader success.

José Fernando Molina is another new matador who can expect to appear in Las Ventas next year, should he wish to, having left the plaza through its puerta grande on June 19, when he recovered from a nasty tossing a puertagayola to cut two ears after impressive faenas with each of his Los Chospes bulls. A further ear was won in Madrid on August 4. These success propelled the 22-year-old to take his alternativa in his home city of Albacete in September at the hands of El Juli, when he cut an ear. Initially managed by Manuel Caballero, Molina had one further contract as a matador de toros, at nearby Munera, cutting two ears, before the season ended.

Juan Pedro García Vizcaíno Calerito was born into a taurine family in 1999 (he is a grandson of the 1950s matador Manuel Calero Calerito) and entered la Escuela Taurina de Espartinas at the age of 6 before facing his first becerra one year later. In 2016, now with Sevilla’s escuela taurina, he won the Ciclo de Novilladas de la Asociación Andaluza de Escuelas Taurinas and the Certamen de Novilladas de la Diputación de Badajoz. He debuted con picadores in 2017 and should be commended for his honesty in an interview he gave torosdelidia.es about his circumstances: “El Circuito de Novilladas is very complicated if you’re not managed by a casa grande, as then it’s almost impossible to get into an important feria, and, with other novilladas, the conditions imposed make it very difficult to torear. In most novilladas, the stipulated minimum arrangements are not kept to, and in very many they ask you for money in order to take part.” Calerito took the alternativa during Sevilla’s Feria de San Miguel, winning an ear, and will be hoping for a return to La Maestranza next April as a springboard for other contracts.

Judging by his website, 27-year-old Carlos Aranda appears to still be taking seriously his prospects of having a career as a matador de toros. Born at Damiel in 1995, he first appeared in public at the age of 13 and in 2011 was the winner of the Certamen de Becerradas de Escuelas Taurinas Andaluzas. He appeared as a novillero sin picadores that same year, his busiest season being in 2013, the year before he debuted with picadors. He took the alternativa at Manzanares on July 16 with Morante de la Puebla as his padrino and Juan Ortega as testigo, cutting three ears. He had three further contracts in 2022, all of them in the province of Ciudad Real, where, it seems, his immediate future lies.

Ignacio Olmos (26) took the alternativa from Eugenio de Mora, his long-term mentor, on April 9 at Tomelloso, cutting an ear from his first bull and receiving a goring on his second. After three years of appearing in novilladas sin picadores, Ignacio debuted with picadors in Cuerva (Toledo) in September 2016. He has been a student at escuelas taurinas in Madrid and Toledo. He made one more appearance as a matador de toros during the 2022 temporada (also in April), cutting an ear in his birthplace of Mora de Toledo.

It remains to be seen what the future holds for young Manuel Perera. Now 21, he was a student at Badajoz’s escuela taurina, and in February 2020 was triunfador at a festival at Ciudad Rodrigo, appearing alongside no less than Morante de la Puebla and El Juli a year after, returning from the same feria, he was involved in a car accident that left him with serious head injuries. Perera debuted with picadors at Olivenza’s 2020 feria and was subsequently taken on by Juan José Padilla and topped the novillero escalafón in 2021 despite a serious goring during Vistalegre’s San Isidro feria. After Manuel cut two ears in Sevilla’s Feria de San Miguel, Padilla secured a prestigious alternativa for him during the city’s Feria de Abril, with Morante de la Puebla as padrino and El Juli as testigo. However, the afternoon passed without success and the only other corrida appearing in Perera’s diary, apart from some festejos in Peru, was one with victorinos at Almendralejo on August 15. Although he enthused the crowd sufficiently to cut two ears from his second bull, the management arrangement with Padilla was ended a month earlier. His populist toreo has been viewed just once more since, again in Peru.

Peaked?

The remaining 10 individuals who took the alternativa in 2022 have probably reached the high point of their taurine endeavours, with little to follow in the future. Several of them are already aged 30 or more.

30-year-old Francisco Montero, from Chiclana de la Frontera, is the Johnnie Ray of bullfighting, frequently bursting into tears out of frustration or joy. He joined Chiclana’s escuela taurina at the age of 14, and first fought in public in 2008 before debuting sin picadores at Chiclana in 2009. He has come up the hard way, the bulk of his experience coming from festejos populares in the Salamanca area, before he finally debuted with picadors at Sepúlveda (Segovia) in 2017. He performed well in the Covid-affected temporada of 2020, winning 7 ears from 5 appearances, which was sufficient to see him head the escalafón de novilleros that year. In 2021, his contracts rose to 12, leaving him eighth in the escalafón, but with generally poorer results. 2022 began with an unsuccessful July evening in Madrid, then he tok part in one more novillada before receiving the alternativa at the French plaza of Orthez on July 24 with Octavio Chacón as padrino and the Mexican Sergio Flores as testigo. He won an ear here and followed that up with two more corridas in which eight ears and two tails were won. He’ll be trying hard to build on this in 2023, but his popularity may have already peaked.

José David Cadavid (35) had a last-minute alternativa at Piedralaves on August 16 when he came into the corrida as a substitute for an injured José Cabrera (see below). Cadavid is Venezuelan, learning his toreo in the escuela taurina at San Cristóbal, but has been seeking his fortune as a torero in Spain since 2005, debuting with picadores three years later. Now he has achieved senior status, perhaps a return to Venezuela is on the cards.

Alejandro Conquero, born in 1994, first performed in public in 2011 and debuted with picadors in 2014. He had been actively seeking to take the alternativa since 2018, finally achieving it at Huelva on July 30 with José María Manzanares as padrino and Andrés Roca Rey as testigo.

José Cabrera, born at Almería in 1993, took the alternativa at Vic-Fezensac on June 5 with Morenito de Aranda as padrino and Alberto Lamelas as testigo, having performed well in the French plaza in 2019. He had one other corrida, at Roquetas del Mar in July, in which he cut three ears, an injury whilst training preventing at least one further appearance, then announced in November that he and his manager were going their separate ways.

Alejandro Fermín was born in Cabezuela del Valle (Cáceres) in 1993 and is an alumno of the taurine schools of Plasencia and Badajoz. He began toreando as a novillero sin picadores in 2011 and debuted with picadors in Madrid’s Las Ventas in 2014. Alejandro won four ears and two tails on the afternoon of his alternativa at Moraleja on July 16, when Miguel Ángel Perera was padrino and El Fandi testigo, but has only had one Peruvian corrida since.

Jesús Díez El Chorlo’s alternativa at Villafranca de los Barros (Badajoz) on October 9 occurred as part of the pueblo’s first corrida for 14 years and the new matador - accompanied in the ceremony by Antonio Ferrera and José Garrido - cut three ears. Díez, born in Llerena 31 years ago, debuted with picadors in 2015 and won the 2020 Certamen ‘Los Raíces del Toreo’ put on by his manager, former matador Tomás Campuzano.

José Ignacio Rodríguez, now 35, took the alternativa at Ontur (Albacete) on March 19, with fellow albaceteño Miguel Tendero as the padrino, but failed to secure any further contracts during the season. Rodríguez had debuted with picadors 12 years earlier. His alternativa had originally been planned for August 6 2019, only for the torero to be injured beforehand.

Javier Moreno Lagartijo de Córdoba was born in 1992 and is an alumno of the Escuela Taurina de Badajoz who debuted with picadors in 2015 at Utrera. As a novillero, he cut three ears in Córdoba in 2021, and the city featured his alternativa as part of this year’s Feria de Salud, Moreno becoming a matador on May 22 with Alejandro Talavante as padrino and Andrés Roca Rey as testigo. Although he cut two ears from the bull of his alternativa, no further contracts followed.

Daniel Barbero’s taurine career has been forged in ‘el Valle del Terror’. Born at Las Navas del Marqués (Ávila) in 1993, Daniel began appearing sin picadores in 2015, debuting with the horsemen three years later, when he cut four ears and a tail. Now managed by Julian Guerra, Barbero took the alternativa at Baza (Granada) on September 12 from Finito de Córdoba, with Paco Ureña as testigo, having previously fought four novilladas this season, two of them at Las Ventas, where he earned a vuelta.

The oldest new matador is Francisco Expósito (42) - strikingly similar in looks to Morante de la Puebla - who has been appearing in the rings of Northern Spain as a novillero (and occasionally as a sobresaliente) for most of this century. Born in Pamplona, he debuted with picadors in 2004 and finally received the alternativa at Sangüesa (Navarra) on September 12. Eugenio de Mora was padrino and Oliva Soto the testigo. Expósito had a successful afternoon, cutting an ear from each bull to the delight of his 13-year-old son, who was also in attendance. One suspects his future will largely involve more appearances as a sobresaliente.