Who doesn't know who Fernando Morientes is today? His biography and sports career is full of brilliant victories and virtuoso goals. Lev Yashin, Johan Cruyff, Diego Maradona, Gerd Muller, Pele - all these people are called the legends of world football. But the name of Fernando Morientes can rightfully be included in this list. How did the star ignite and what is its place in the constellation "Galacticos"?
Biography
Fernando Morientes was born on April 5, 1976 in the Spanish town of Caceres. He played football from the age of 5 at the Toledo sports school. At the age of 17, he made his professional debut in the example. Then he played in the Albacete team and immediately proved himself to be a brilliant scorer, scoring four goals to his opponents. After that, Fernando Morientes changed six football clubs and was noted as a talented forward everywhere.
Zaragoza was first on the list. Here the talent of a football player was revealed to the fullest. In just two years of playing for the Morientes football club, Fernando scored 34 goals. After such a triumph, the football player needed an appropriate club. In 1997, he received an invitation from Fabio Capello to Real Madrid. Coach vouchedfor a young footballer in front of his superiors, and he lived up to his expectations, scoring 16 goals in his first season. True, staying in the new club was not serene. I had to share playing time with Davor Šuker and Predrag Mijatović.
In 1998, Morientes Fernando got into the national team. Together with Raul Gonzalez, he created a grandiose duet, ousting all competitors. One of the bright and beautiful victories of the duo was the defeat of Valencia in the Champions League in 2000.
In 2003, in support of the French club Monaco, Morientes Fernando played for him on loan for a year. He quickly became a bright leader of the team and bypassed Lokomotiv, his native Real Madrid, Chelsea, mercilessly scoring goals. Morientes brought Monaco to the Champions League final, losing in the decisive game to Porto (Portugal). Nevertheless, Fernando became the top scorer of the season with 9 goals.
After that, the Spanish striker returned to Real Madrid, but only a bench awaited him there, as the club invited Michael Owen to the team. This disappointment did not last long. Already in 2005, it officially became known that the English Liverpool bought Fernando Morientes for 9.3 million euros.
The attacker, however, did not stay there long. A year later, ironically, the football player moved to Valencia, where he created another “breakthrough” duet with football player David Villa. In the Champions League (2006-2007) they scored 39 goals (for two). In 2009, the contract with Valencia ended, and the player moved to Marseille. And a year later, Fernando Morientes officially announced the end of his professional career.career.
The Spanish football player has been married for about twenty years. His wife, Maria Victoria Lopez, gave Fernando a son and three daughters. The son is named after his father.
Playstyle
Of course, in world football there are players who have long surpassed the Spanish scorer in terms of the number of goals. But no one has yet been able to repeat the style that Fernando Morientes created. The striker is known as a virtuoso finisher. He literally "hammered" the balls with his head into the opponents' goal. In the game, Morientes did not tolerate monotony, and therefore was unpredictable, fast, gave unexpected passes and volume to matches.
Goal stats
During his entire active career in clubs, the Spanish scorer scored 100 goals. Of these, most of them were rolled in the period 2006-2007 as part of Valencia FC (38 goals). Fernando played the next two seasons with dignity, but without enthusiasm. Sports analysts dubbed this time the "slow fading" of a star named Fernando Morientes. All the same, he scored goals regularly during this period (24 goals in two Champions League seasons).
Until recently, in the ranking of the best Spanish scorers, Morientes Fernando held an honorable fourth place, behind David Villa, Raul Gonzalez and his namesake Fernando Hierro in the number of goals.
Achievements
With Real Madrid, Morientes was a three-time Champions League winner, a two-time Spanish champion, and also one European Super Cup winner, two Intercontinental Cup winners, threeSpanish Super Cup.
Liverpool helped win the European Super Cup and the FA Cup.
For Valencia, the striker acquired the Spanish Cup.
With Marseille, Morientes became the champion of France and the French League Cup.
Besides, Fernando has personal awards. So, in the Champions League 2003-2004. he became the top scorer and finalist of the Champions League.
Interesting facts
Fernando Morientes has two professional nicknames: Nando (short for Fernando) and El Moro (Moor). The latter was assigned to the player when he played for Real Madrid.
FC Barcelona offered 22 million euros for the Spanish scorer, but did not pull his salary rate.
Fernando Morientes took 25th place in the ranking of the most beautiful football players in the world. Behind him is a friend and colleague of the Spanish striker - Raul Gonzalez.
In 2002, in the quarterfinals, Real Madrid played with a South Korean team. During the game, the Koreans themselves scored a goal, but the referee Gamal Ghandur refused to accept it. In extra time, Real took the opponents' goal, but the ball, deftly scored by Fernando Morientes, was not counted. This was later recognized as a judicial error. But the course of the Champions League could not be changed. These two points could be decisive for Real Madrid and take them to the semi-finals against Germany.
Today
For some time after his official retirement from football, nothing was heard of Morientes. He plunged headlong into the familylife and engaged in raising children. Since the beginning of 2012, he has been trying coaching work in the youth teams of Huracan and Madrid.
During Euro 2012, Fernando was an expert for a Spanish TV channel and visited the games in Ukraine and Poland.
In 2015, Morientes took charge of the Fuenlabrada football club, which today is the third strongest Spanish division. This was the first serious experience in the coaching career of Fernando. However, he was fired in February 2016 due to poor results.
In parallel with coaching, the Spanish football player took part in three matches as part of the Santa Ana team from the suburbs of Madrid. He played with his son, helping to bring the team to Tercera.
