With Real Madrid’s rich and successful history, there are many strikers that, while appreciated during their playing time, have flown somewhat under the radar since then.
Morientes was one such name.
A clinical finisher with a powerful strike and a lustrous head of hair, Morientes was every bit an archetypal elite Spanish forward.
Born in the tiny municipality of Cilleros, a beautiful rural town with a population of just under 2,000, Morientes came from the very definition of humble beginnings.
Aged four he and his family upgraded somewhat to Sonseca, where a little more was happening, but could still be described as a quaint and humble town.
Despite playing for his tiny hometown side, Sonesca, for the entirety of his childhood, he was fortunate enough to get scouted by Albacete, one of the region’s biggest sides.
A Future Star
Albacete had just been promoted to La Liga, having found themselves in the first division after back-to-back promotions, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact they finished 1st in both the 3rd division and second division campaign.
It was the first time in their history they’d made it out of the second division.
At 16 years old Morientes looked quite the prospect. Signing for the Albacete youth side in 1992, he only needed a year before he was ready for senior football, making his debut in 1993, at just 17 years old.
As impressive as this was, he only played 21 minutes across two league games all season, but he would show Spanish football that he was a name to remember in the Copa Del Rey.
He scored in a 4-1 thrashing of Celta Vigo after coming on as a second-half substitute, making him the 6th youngest scorer in the competition’s history at the time, and the youngest scorer in the competition since 1928.
That’s right, the top 5 all scored over 60 years prior.
His first league goal came against Racing. Come the end of the season, he’d racked up 3 goals in 11 appearances, which considering he only played 90 minutes 3 times all season, and was limited usually to 45-minute cameos, was a decent return.
Albacete just inched clear of relegation, finishing 17th, but it was clear that the now 18-year-old Morientes was destined for much greater things.
Moving On Up
The next year, he’d see an opportunity to jump from a sinking ship with Real Zaragoza, the 94-95 Copa Del Rey winners, throwing Morientes a line and signing the Spaniard on a free.
Despite making just 3 league starts up to this point, Morientes would burst onto the scene, a-la Micah Richards, playing 29 games and scoring 13 for a much better side.
This was a huge step up, and despite having less than 1,000 minutes of senior football under his belt, he took to it like a writer takes to overused idioms.
He even scored a first career hat-trick in this breakout year, netting 3 against Valencia a month before he turned 20.
He even scored a hat-trick away from home in the Copa Del Rey round of 16, the sole reason for Zaragoza’s progression as they beat Athletic Bilbao on away goals, the tie finishing 3-3 on aggregate.
15 in 37 league games proved he could be a key striker who could cope with playing every game in a season.
After another good season performing at a mid-table Zaragoza, much bigger fish were eying up the young striker, who had now scored 38 senior competitive goals by the age of 21.
Battling (And Winning) for Minutes With Super Stars
In 1997, Fernando Morientes made the pivotal move of his career when he transferred to giants Real Madrid. At this time Madrid were starting to assemble a team of superstars, as the era of the ‘Galacticos’ began.
Morientes would become an integral part of this project.
When Morientes signed, he had fierce competition up front. Davor Suker had signed the year before and was hot off the back of a 24-goal La Liga campaign.
Fellow Yugoslavian Miljatovic, had been playing in the hole behind him, occasionally slotting in as a second striker when needed.
But most daunting of all, the remarkable Raul, a year younger than Morientes, had netted 21 goals playing alongside Suker.
But for all the tough competition, Morientes finished his first season playing second fiddle to Mijatovic and Davor Suker, but still kept himself in first-team contention making 33 appearances and managing a respectable 12 league goals.
The next year, however, Morientes truly became a galactico, his performances ousting Suker from first choice, the next year proving to be his most prolific season.
Aged 23, he rewarded Madrid’s faith in him with 19 league goals in just 24 starts, all while playing off of main striker Raul who was garnering much of the glory, with the Madrid icon scoring 25 times in 37.
The two formed quite a partnership, the combo working off of each other’s respective strengths instinctively
The following year, Madrid was abysmal in La Liga by their own high standards, stuttering to 5th place in a season packed with competitive teams.
Morientes failed to recapture that same form, but still proved a great strike partner to Raul.
While things had gone awry in the league, Madrid performed far better in the Champions League, Morientes playing a key role in their success, opening the scoring in the final as Madrid trounced Valencia 3-0.
In 2002/03, despite his successful 21-goal season before, he barely featured the next year starting just a single game in La Liga, scoring 3 goals off the back of being substituted on.
But he deserved better, and he showed that. In his one start all season, he scored a brace against Malaga, but Madrid had signed Ronaldo to play alongside Raul, the Galactico era well and truly at its peak at this point.
He deserved a starring role in a good team, a role he would earn thanks to a Monaco loan move.
The Hero He Deserved To Be
The France-based principality was a top French side, regularly remaining competitive in the Champions League, in signing 28-year-old Morientes on loan, they had Champions League winning experience to help build a serious run into the competition.
The signing was a stroke of genius. While he didn’t exactly set the league alight, managing 10 in 28, in Europe Morientes was deadly.
Life in the Champions League started perfectly, Morientes doing exactly what he was signed to do, scoring 3 and setting one up in the opening two group games.
The group was a tough one, but Monaco squeezed through by a single point, finishing on 11, ahead of Deportivo and PSV who finished 2nd and 3rd on 10 points.
The first step was over, now came the real battle.
A tight 2-2 victory over Lokomotiv Moscow on away goals, that saw Morientes grab the all-important away goal sent them into the quarter-final, where fate had a cruel twist in store for Morientes.
Monaco were due to face Real Madrid next.
A Madridian Ghost Story
At this time it wasn’t commonplace to insert clauses in loan contracts about players facing parent clubs, so Morientes played as if it were any other match.
After taking a 1-0 lead away from home on the stroke of half-time, the French side looked in a good position to secure a fantastic away result. Even a 2-1 loss could be considered an advantage with the away goals rule.
This goal served to wake Madrid up, and after a rousing team talk, Madrid won the first leg, the whistle-calling time with Madrid having scored 4 goals.
But not before Morientes could pop up with a vital header in the 90th minute to keep Monaco in with a shout at getting something back in the home leg.
Madrid were understandably confident but were blindsided by a Morientes and Giuly masterclass. However, not before a Raul opener saw Madrid take a 3-goal lead, combining with Ronaldo to put them in front on the night 36 minutes in.
Monaco needed a goal and fast, but against one of the best teams in the world, goals don’t come easily.
Or most thought, but when Morientes won a header from a long ball, knocking it back to Giuly, Monaco struck gold.
It was a simple goal, Giuly striking the ball first time on the volley from the edge of the box, rolling past Casillas into the bottom corner.
3 minutes later, the inevitable happened. Another trademark Morientes header, this time a shot on goal, the Spaniard leaping like a Salmon to connect with another hopeful long ball.
It was an incredible header, generating a looping attempt that left Casillas rooted to the spot, watching as it sailed in the top corner.
2-1 on the night, 5-4 on aggregate, and in the space of 3 minutes Madrid had gone from cruising to panic stations.
Mentally they were destroyed, and it didn’t take much longer for another goal, Giuly scoring a second, an intelligent flick from a low cross-cum-shot bewitching Casillas in goal.
Madrid were sent packing, and Morientes was the Monaco hero, and simultaneously Madrid’s public enemy number one.
Monaco continued their run, Morientes scoring in both legs of the Semi-final to beat Chelsea, picking up an assist as well in the 2nd leg.
He had inspired Monaco’s run to the final, but sadly, they finally met their match as another plucky underdog by the name of Porto, who had won the UEFA Cup last season, led by a young Jose Mourinho were too much for them in the final. They lost 3-0, but Morientes was still a hero.
When he returned to Madrid, many fans were apoplectic, while others understood he was simply doing his job like all good strikers would.
The writing was on the wall however, and he was duly sold to Liverpool, where he failed to recapture his Monaco magic, and returned to Spain with Valencia after two disappointing seasons in England.
Now well into his 30’s he still had some magic left in him as he scored 12 in 14 in his first season back in Spain, before retreating to a rotational role in his final two seasons.
