Nor should anyone ignore Ferran Torres (Barcelona), Dani Olmo (RB Leipzig), Mikel Oyarzabal (Real Sociedad), Yeremi Pino (Villarreal) or Pablo Sarabia (Paris Saint-Germain) either, but Morata is clearly in pole position to occupy that centre-forward spot. His career record sparkles — spells at Real Madrid, Chelsea, Atletico Madrid and Juventus, collecting 19 winners’ medals — yet some will argue that all that glitters isn’t gold.
Morata’s consistently had to bounce around from club to club, seeking approval and in search of a place to call “home,” but in the process, he’s changed radically. We’re looking at someone who’s won the title in Italy and Spain, who’s played in three Champions league finals — scoring in one of them, winning the other two — has been European champion with Spain at two different age categories (and tournament top scorer each time) yet there will be many doubting he can propel Luis Enrique’s team to the big one in Qatar.
Morata’s happy-go-lucky nature and “big kid made it good” personality have might have hindered him being the best version of himself as a footballer. Now, though, he’s come through a brutal back injury and some serious mental anguish; he’s happily married and a dad to three kids plus, crucially, he’s spent years training every day against Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci and Gigi Buffon. No quarter asked or given there.
One of Morata’s most common themes is the disparity between football, as a career, and the way other professions evolve and are constructed. He argues: “One of the unfortunate things is that in other professions, you do your University studies, then your Masters and just as you hit your late 20s or early 30s, you’re professionally mature, but the rest of your career lies in front of you. For us, once you hit your mid-30s, that’s when people start to consider you old and past it.”
During the last European Championship, the distasteful rubbishing of his abilities and character reached such a level that he was “struggling to want to get out of bed, not keen to leave my hotel room… until team mates or a conversation with my wife helped bring me out of that.”
Recently, Morata told Mens Health: “Complicated personal moments help teach you to put everything in context. I look at the situation in many countries around the world, and I can accept that losing a match or missing a chance are important, but only to a certain extent.
“Football connects to the emotions of so many people that if things aren’t going well, it’s hard for them to remember we’re only human beings. We need to remember we are healthy, we are lucky to be doing what we do and we have our families to go home to — that’s what really matters in life”.
There’s no feeling of charity from his national team coach because Morata is likeable, open, honest and coming to the sweet part of a personal journey to plenitude. It’s imperative he continues the form, and attitude, he’s shown not only against Villarreal, but in scoring a hat-trick against Juventus in the last pre-season friendly, then two more against Getafe on Matchday 1. However he’s in pole position for Spain partly because he’s fully signed up to the Luis Enrique philosophy.
“All the boss asks of me is to give absolutely everything until I’ve got no energy left, then to raise my arm and ask to come off — that’s fundamental. He wants a kind of link play from me to help us pass out from the back and frankly, I’ve adapted to a style that no team I’ve ever been in has used.
“I think it’s time for the Spain fans to get switched on to the fact that something great is coming. We’ve got good players and if we feel criticised instead of supported, then it’ll be harder to achieve something great.”
Mature Morata: finally. Spain and Atletico stand to benefit if it continues.
