Where Are They Now: Fernando Morientes
I remember when Fernando Morientes first signed for Liverpool and got quite excited about this calibre of player being in the Premier League. Also, I was intrigued to see how he would fit into the side, in terms of synergy, rather if he would play or not.
Probably unlucky about the fact that at Real Madrid he was competing with Ronaldo Nazario, Robinho, Julio Baptista and club legend Raul for a starting place, though at a price of £6.3 million, this was a definite coup for Liverpool.
He was still only 28 as well, so he definitely had a good few years in him and he’d just had a decent season on loan at AS Monaco.
As January signings go (2005), this was probably one of the most eyebrow raising at the time and one of the most expensive – signed to cover the injured Djibril Cisse, who only arrived the previous summer. Indeed, French centre-back Jean-Alain Boumsong’s move from Rangers to Newcastle was the only fee to eclipse this, at £8 million in that window.
It also appeared to be a bit of a funny response to Everton who had just signed James Beattie from Southampton for £6 million and Liverpool got a three-time Champions League winner for just £300,000 more!
There are probably quite a few Reds fans of a certain age who would say Morientes is one of their favourite strikers to have played for Liverpool, though, surprisingly, he didn’t actually score that many goals. In fact, only eight in 41 appearances.
But, there are those in any work environment (it doesn’t happen often), who don’t necessarily post great stats, but they get the best out of everyone else around them and, that’s what I think Morientes did.
He was in a different league with his positioning, awareness and the runs he made, which created space for the likes’ of Steven Gerrard and drew the opposition full-back into the channel, allowing fellow Spaniard, Luis Garcia freedom out wide to get crosses in. So, yeah – for me, I was definitely a fan.
I’d have like to have seen more of him in a Liverpool shirt and for him to stay for longer; him, Cisse, Florent Sinama-Pongolle all left (the latter two on loan) and there weren’t really any replacements. Craig Bellamy and Dirk Kuyt were more wingers than anything else.
Goal-scoring Rejuvenation And Twlight Years
His reported £3 million move to Valencia in May 2006 sparked the start of a return to form, where he scored on his La Liga debut, hit a Champions League hat-trick against Olympiakos and established a flourishing partnership with a young David Villa, scoring 12 in 24 games. What a squad Valencia had back then! He was top-scorer for Valencia during that season and he earned a recall to the Spanish national side as well.
After three seasons back in Spain, where he scored 19 goals in 66 games, his career started to dwindle, some of which was interrupted by illness.
He moved to Marseille for a year before transitioning to coaching, appointed in youth academy roles for Valencia and then Real Madrid. Incredibly, at the age of 38 in 2015, he signed with DAV Santa Ana as a player in the Madrid regional championships, making three appearances before returning to coaching.
The post Where Are They Now: Fernando Morientes appeared first on Friends Of Liverpool.