Since, 2014, Juventus, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Atletico Madrid have spent more than €200m in transfer fees on Alvaro Morata. That’s elite money for a striker who averages around ten goals a season, and who has never scored more than 15 league goals in a single campaign. But somehow he has done enough throughout his career to convince big clubs that he is a top-tier forward. I mean, he looks the part, and he gets into good scoring positions, but his finishing is poor.
There are many YouTube clips of Morata missing easy chances, by the way. The one above happens to be the worst – and it’s not just a bad miss, he also strolled offside in the manner of a Sunday park player nursing a hangover.
If Morata is not world-class, then his agent most definitely is. Or, as some wags on Twitter are mischievously suggesting, the player is a vehicle for money laundering.
Morata’s return to Juventus, announced this week, is yet more evidence that agents tend to be smarter than the clubs they deal with. It is also a sign that there is a dearth of high-quality goalscorers in Europe. Lewandowskis do not grow on trees.