Morientes Off To Monaco On Loan

With last season's top scorer Shabani Nonda unavailable until March, AS Monaco manager and French soccer legend Didier Deschamps was forced to find a good replacement for his star striker.

A transfer of Giovane Elber was close but the Bayern player finally committed to Lyon; Monaco may have pulled off a better capture today with the loan of Fernando Morientes from Real Madrid, who will pay at least 40% of his wages.

The Spain international has been somewhat frozen out since the transfer of Ronaldo last summer.

AS Roma and Leeds were recently interested but the bank guarantees showed by Monaco decided the move.