Real's Morientes frozen out by galacticos
Striker Fernando Morientes joins Liverpool after becoming the biggest victim of Real Madrid's belief that going "galactico" would guarantee success.
Striker Fernando Morientes joins Liverpool after becoming the biggest victim of Real Madrid's belief that going "galactico" would guarantee success.
A proven goalscorer at the highest level for club and country, Morientes has been off-loaded by Real because he lacks the cachet of team mates Ronaldo, Raul and Michael Owen.
Morientes was the Champions League's top scorer last season on loan at Monaco, his nine goals powering the Ligue 1 club to their first European Cup final.
For Real, this was still not good enough. The Spanish giants bought Owen three months later and relegated Morientes to fourth choice at the Bernabeu.
It is not the first time Morientes, moving to Liverpool for nine million euros, has lost out in a roller-coaster career which started as a 17-year-old at unfashionable Albacete.
He signed for Real Zaragoza in 1995, scoring 28 goals in two seasons before being snapped up by Real for a reported fee of 6.6 million euros ($8.6 million).
Morientes was one of a raft of players joining from middle-ranking sides as Real cherry-picked the best players in the Primera Liga and offered them lucrative long-term deals.
Renowned for his prowess in the air, the powerful centre-forward was an important part of the team that won the 1998 European Cup, allowing the club to regain its status as the best on the continent after a 32-year wait.
Forming a lethal partnership with close friend Raul, Morientes picked up two more European Cup winners medals in 2000 and 2002 and helped Real to league titles in 2001 and 2003.
However, just after finishing the season as Real's top scorer in the league with 18 goals, he fell victim to club president Florentino Perez's policy of recruiting the best players in the world.
Perez tried to use Morientes as a bargaining counter in the deal to sign Ronaldo in August 2002, first as part exchange for Brazil's World Cup winner and then by selling him to Barcelona.
Although Ronaldo arrived, Morientes ended up staying and watched most of the season from the dugout. After losing his place in the national side, Morientes had little choice but to move.
He finally took up the loan offer to join Monaco for the season, with Real agreeing to pay about two-thirds of his 4.5 million euro salary.
Under Didier Deschamps, Morientes became a more rounded player and in a delicious piece of irony he helped eliminate Real from a competition they had come to see as their own.
His late strike in a 4-2 first leg win at the Bernabeu was crucial and he scored again in a 3-1 home defeat which put Monaco through on the away goals rule.
His performances won him a return to the Spain squad for Euro 2004 and he has since taken his tally of international goals to 25 in 38 games, a better strike rate than all-time top scorer Raul.
This season, despite early optimism and a run of three managers, the 28-year-old ended up in his familiar seat on the Real bench, mostly waiting for a Spanish coach to give him a chance.
Now he has been given it, by Liverpool's Rafael Benitez.