Alvaro Morata – Raised the trophy and became a player of another great!

Alvaro Morata recently lifted the first major trophy with the national team as captain. A few days later Morata became the fifth great player in his career.

Morata returned to Italy

During his career, Alvaro Morata played only for big clubs, and it will be the same this time as he moved to Milan. Morata started his career in Real Madrid, with whom he lifted the cup twice in the Champions League and La Liga. He was a member of this team on two occasions and a similar situation was with Juventus. With the Italian team, he won Serie A twice. Captain of Spanish national team also played in England, where he was a member of Chelsea, with whom he managed to win the UEFA Europa League trophy.

Morata is returning to Italy after staying in another Madrid team, Atletico, with which he failed to win a major trophy. It was announced for days that Morata would move to Milan, and it finally happened. He signed a contract for four years and will earn 4,500,000 euros per season. Milan set aside 13,000,000 euros for the arrival of Morata, which was the buyout clause.

It is particularly interesting to note that the clubs Morata played for paid 215,000,000 euros for his arrival, which makes him the fifth most expensive player of all time. According to that parameter, only Neymar, Romelu Lukaku, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ousmane Dembele are ahead of him. In his career so far, Morata has played 525 games and scored 187 goals with 53 assists. Even during the Euro, it was hinted that Morata was going to leave Madrid, and he was also very angry with his now former club:

“I read in the media that Atletico want to sign new strikers, they are negotiating with eight different players. Let me be clear, I don’t seem to be the club’s priority. And I’m not the kind of person who can stay, not play, not be a priority. I will turn 32 in October, I still have time to play, if not in Atlético then certainly somewhere else” – Morata told “El Larguero”. Morata managed to lift the first major trophy with Spain, but he was also very critical of the public there, to whom he responded to criticism after the match with Germany in the quarter-finals:

“It’s hard for me to be happy in Spain. Without any doubt, I’m happier when I play in abroad, and I’ve already said it several times. First of all, people don’t respect me. In Spain, people said that I cried on the touchline. What a stupid thing to do… I cried for my country, which I am the captain of, because it went through to the semi-finals. I would never allow myself to criticize someone for such tears, and now I would cut off my hand if we win the European Championship because it could be my last one for the national team, we’ll see what the future holds”.

The future brought him the title of European champion, and Morata had the honor of lifting the trophy meant for the winner as the captain. After the final, he made a very interesting statement: “I would like to thank my wife, family and Andres Iniesta. If it weren’t for him and Bojan Krkić, I wouldn’t have played at the Euros. They went through what I’m going through and there’s always light at the end of the tunnel.”

Morata aimed at the enormous pressure that professional footballers face, and some of them, such as Bojan Krkic, failed to cope with all that modern football brings. Throughout his career, Morata faces derogatory comments, but for a player who played exclusively for big clubs, you cannot say that he is bad. He still has a lot to give to European football because he is 31 years old. Morata could go to Saudi Arabia, earn millions without any pressure but he is still eager to prove himself at the top level.

By winning the title in Germany, he became only the 12th player who managed to become a champion with Spain in both junior categories and senior competition. It can be said that his career in Germany reached its peak, and we will see if in two years Morata could lift the title of world champion. As for his club career, it is in a slight decline because Morata won the last championship title in 2017 with Real Madrid, and a year later he won the UEFA Europa League with Chelsea.

At the moment, it doesn’t seem realistic that Morata will win a big trophy with Milan, but that the city rival Inter has a much better chance for that, and the rise of Juventus, the former club of the Spanish player who had several disappointing seasons, is also expected.