At a time when Julián López Escobar El Juli - shortly to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his alternativa at Nîmes - has announced an indefinite cessation of his bullfight activities as from the end of this temporada, here is a personal recollection of the matador’s career to date and how his toreo has evolved over that period.

Julián came into Spanish toreo as a much-praised novillero who had already performed brilliantly in Mexico (participating in an indulto in the capital) and shown huge variety with the capote and muleta, together with a facility for placing banderillas - a seemingly born all-rounder.

The first time I saw him in action was when, in the Spring of 1998, aged 15, he came into an Arnedo novillada as a substitute for an injured Miguel Abellán. He’d begun appearing in novilladas con picadores in Spain towards the end of the previous season and was already surrounded by a huge amount of publicity and expectation.

The youngster didn’t disappoint. His capework was adventurous and varied, with some superb adjusted feet-together verónicas, a one-handed remate and a quite de gaoneras to his first novillo and an excellent quite de faroles to his second. After a similarly varied faena, a straight over-the-top estocada alone merited the ear he was awarded on his first bull, and some half-kneeling passes at either end of his second faena, in which El Juli stuck to the classic series, and another strong sword brought another ear, the Arnedo girls queuing up to kiss the youngster on his vuelta.

This was impressive stuff from someone so young and, when news broke later that year that El Juli was to make his presentation in Madrid in a six-bull affair, I immediately altered my planned September itinerary to include this event. Despite being outside the Las Ventas abono, the novillada was a sell-out. The bulls didn’t disappoint, either, being ‘novillos’ in the Madrid understanding of the term from El Torreón, Victorino Martin, Daniel Ruiz, Alcurrucén and two from El Pilar, El Juli’s management having originally over-reached themselves when a Samuel Flores animal picked for the day turned out to be over-age.

The story of the first four bulls was very much one of El Juli up against the elements - both the gale of a wind and the animals themselves. Julián was nevertheless determined to give his all, producing a variety of capework and standing firm and passing the animals closely at great risk to himself. The second novillo bumped him to the ground in the capework and tossed him no less than three times in the faena. The victorino sent banderillero El Formidable hijo to the infirmary with a 30-centimetre goring in the backside. The fourth novillo caught López comprehensively during its faena, Julián being extremely fortunate that one horn passed between his legs and the other over his shoulder.

The fifth novillo was a gorgeous-looking astifino colorado, rightly awarded a vuelta en arrastre after sustaining its charge and exhibiting nobleza throughout its lidia. Recognising the quality of his opponent, El Juli brought off a simply amazing first quite of escobinas - a kind of reverse chicuelina of his own invention – and a dramatic second quite of Mexican zapopinas. Three pairs of banderillas followed from the novillero himself. Then, after a dedication to his father, Julián concentrated mainly on the left hand in the faena, securing beautifully-controlled series, each one ending in a different remate - a chest pass, a trincherazo, a trincherilla, a capetillina, a cambio de mano... Citing close in with the sword, López finished things with a sound estocada recibiendo. The crowd stood waving handkerchiefs until the animal's two ears had been awarded, and, after receiving an ovation on his sixth bull, the new phenomenon was carried round the arena on shoulders and out through the Puerta Grande. A week later, he took his alternativa at Nîmes in a corrida televised across Spain.

The following year, he shot to the top of the matadors’ escalafón with a total of 132 appearances - 24 more than Enrique Ponce - from which he cut 279 ears and 16 tails.

In 2000, the youngster, still a novelty for many spectators, again headed the escalafón. By 2001, having suffered three cornadas during the course of the temporada, he had slipped to third behind Finito de Córdoba and Ponce. A sighting of him at Valladolid that September alongside the valenciano and José Tomás indicated that, although he was the first of the three to win an ear, he still had work to do to reach their level. His banderillas - almost always delivered al cuarteo to the right side of the bull - were predictable and didn’t add anything to his lidia, while (after the crowd had demanded two ears for the other two matadors on their second bulls) he misjudged his audience by abstaining from capework to the last bull of the day and trying to construct pases de arrimón as the climax to its faena. José Tomás left the plaza to shouts of “Torero! Torero!” (followed by a bronca to the president for denying him his second ear); Enrique Ponce was carried out in triumph; while Julián, looking dejected, departed to whistles.

El Juli opted for a change of management for the following season, taking on the matador El Tato as his apoderado, and looked to bolster his standing in 2003 by facing encerronas at Madrid, Santander, Linares and Zaragoza. But, looking back on this period later, Julián commented: “I was stuck. On the one hand, I wanted to evolve, but I could not develop because I had to respond to expectations and at the same time defend my position. […] I neither enjoyed bullfighting, nor was I happy. Sometimes I didn't even know what I wanted to do.”

A further change of management - to another ex-matador, Roberto Domínguez - at the end of 2003 helped the madrileño find direction. He immediately stopped placing banderillas, reduced his contract numbers and began focusing on achieving a more profound use of capote and muleta, concentrating on the classic passes rather than continuing with the variety of previous years.

Julián was certainly enjoying his toreo in 2004 when I saw him cut two ears from his second bull in Santander’s feria (I would have awarded him two more from his first El Ventorillo bull that day as well, but the bulk of the crowd, who’d complained about his not placing banderillas, were strangely unenthusiastic). His capework was brief, but of high quality, while his faenas were marvellously fluid, the cambios de mano being a particular highlight, along with a concentration on naturales.

Another impressive performance I witnessed from El Juli was at the six-bull encerrona held in Nîmes in 2008 to mark the 10th anniversary of his alternativa. His standing had further improved with a Puerta Grande triumph at Las Ventas the previous year (unrepeated since, although there have been several ‘near misses’): 2007 also marked the inauguration of his bullfight school at Arganda del Rey.

Encerronas are an opportunity to show variety as well as profundity and Julián did not hold back, the Nîmes afternoon, featuring six bulls of Daniel Ruiz, being an absolute triumph, El Juli determined to do his best with each toro. With the capote, we were treated to feet-together, a compás and half-kneeling verónicas plus tafalleras, revoleras, caleserinas, a serpentina, afaroladas, chicuelinas, navarras, largas (including a larga cambiada de rodillas) and zapopinas (now known this side of the Atlantic as lopecinas).

Julián’s artistry with the muleta was impressive, too. The linking was finely judged, the matador seemingly able to bring animals safely back past him from wherever they happened to end up. There were some excellent series of linked derechazos and naturales, the passes sometimes extended by deft cambios de mano; fulsome pases de pecho; and circulares that showed his utter domination of his opponents.

El Juli’s work with the sixth bull provided a fitting climax to the whole event. The faena was absolutely superb. The matador began by citing the bull from a distance and drawing it into tandas, soon switching the cloth to his left for some low, stretched naturales, running the hand beautifully, half the muleta sweeping along the sand. Circulares and a further sequence with the cloth in the right hand followed, then naturales given with the feet together and some half-kneeling pases ayudados to close. After another estocada, the president awarded the two ears and a tail that the whole plaza, all of us now on our feet, demanded. That afternoon, El Juli had shown his variety, his ability to get the most out of bulls with different characteristics, his supreme mastery of classical toreo and his uniquely competitive, engagingly arrogant, spirit.

Arguably, his strongest years were just ahead of him. He cut 55 ears in 1st class plazas in 2010, an exit through Sevilla’s Puerta del Príncipe included, a feat he repeated in 2011 when 1st class plazas yielded him 44 orejas. At that season’s end, in the city’s penultimate corrida before the Catalan ban took effect, he went out the main gate of Barcelona’s Plaza Monumental for the 19th time. Julián had stepped in to fill the gap created by José Tomás’s reducing appearances, being prepared to appear twice in a feria if necessary, and, in 2010, had also made the gesture of six mano a mano appearances. The first of these was an historic mano a mano with Enrique Ponce in the latter’s home city of Valencia; Julián also took on Sebastián Castella, Juan Bautista and José María Manzanares on their home territories, securing triumphs on each occasion, and then ended the sequence cutting eight ears and a tail from five bulls in Pozoblanco after José Luis Moreno was gored by his first toro. His technical proficiency was such it was said many spectators failed to appreciate his mastery, but his greater enemy in these years appeared to be ring presidents, a number of whom chose to deny him awards crowds were petitioning for.

His membership of the G10 in 2012 brought him into conflict with the empresas, but the following year’s Easter Sunday saw Julián achieve his 4th departure through Sevilla’s Puerta del Príncipe. Shortly afterwards, la Maestranza witnessed a serious goring to his right leg, the madrileño needing three operations before he could return to the bullrings. By now, he was beginning to develop his approach of keeping the muleta low from start to finish of a pass and stretching the pass out considerably, albeit often at the cost of toreando with a hunched, rather than straight, figure. 2014 and ‘15 saw further disputes with the empresas as El Juli joined with Morante de la Puebla, Alejandro Talavante, Miguel Ángel Perera and (for a while) Manzanares in demanding better treatment.

At the end of 2014, El Juli appointed Luis Manuel Lozano as his apoderado, an arrangement that continues to this day. He has continued to be one of toreo’s mainstays during this period, restricting his appearances to some 40 corridas per season, but regularly racking up triumphs. In 2016, he was awarded Spain’s Medalla de Oro de las Bellas Artes.

By this time, he had a clearly stated preference to torear the domecqs of Garcigrande and its sister hierro Domingo Hernández, appearing with them frequently. For many aficionados, this relationship weakened the standing of El Juli as a figura, although Julián defended the arrangement by claiming that bulls of such sweet-charging quality are difficult to torear well and consequently differentiate good toreros from the mediocre.

El Juli headed the escalafón once more in 2019 - for the first time since 2002 - and recent years have seen an upsurge in the madrileño’s toreo. Now, when at his best and his bull’s qualities allow, the muleta is held low from start to finish of a pass, but with Julián not bending over the animal as he achieves the suerte.

I have seen two outstanding performances from El Juli in this period. The first was at Valladolid in 2021 on the day of his stablemate Tomás Rufo’s alternativa, when he produced two wonderful faenas of slow and stretching derechazos and naturales. The second was in the 2022 Feria de San Isidro. I wasn’t present the day of his extraordinary faena, let down by the swordwork, which won over the hardy hearts of Tendido 7 and left Julián weeping tears of frustration in the callejón, but I was in Las Ventas the day of his next appearance when his second faena just got better and better as it went on. Showing his absolute dominio, El Juli cited the bull from a short distance, encouraging the charge, then gradually extended the length of the suertes, curving the animal around him but keeping the muleta in the bull’s face and securing linking. When series were extended to their maximum and closed with pases de pecho, the crowd went wild. Unfortunately, once again, the matador’s use of the estoque denied him a triumph.

For me, for all the improvement in his toreo over the years, it is the decline in his swordwork that has prevented my full enjoyment of his appearances. His leaping estocada has been there from the start of his career, but a leap over the bull’s right horn did not last long and the leap now is almost invariably to the side of the bull to avoid its horns completely. This has been a disappointing end to so many engaging faenas.

What I shall miss about El Juli (although it seems, in this instance, a return to the bullrings at some future date is highly likely) is his capacity as a torero, his ability to read bulls, his determination (on most occasions) to do his very best and his utter competitiveness. I welcome, too, the opening up of the carteles that his departure should bring about - and hope that the empresas do not decide to fill the gap with just one individual or - god forbid - with a returning Enrique Ponce.