The Rise to Stardom: Alvaro Morata

Alvaro Morata has seen his career take off in the past six years since making his first appearance for the Real Madrid first team back in 2010. Now following a stint with Italian super club Juventus, Morata has return to his home country. Here’s a look at Morata’s quick rise to stardom.

Through and through, Alvaro Morata is a Madrid boy. Born and raised in the Spanish capital, Morata has been around Real Madrid his entire life. However, Morata didn’t initially join Real Madrid when he was 13. In 2005, Morata joined Real Madrid’s rival club and nearby neighbor, Atletico Madrid.

Morata stayed with Atletico until 2007 before being sent to another La Liga club in Getafe. Morata only spent a year in the Getafe youth academy before joining the Real Madrid academy in 2008. It was at this time that Morata saw his career begin to take off.

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In 2009, Morata made his first appearance for the Spanish U17 team making six appearances and scoring two goals. It was during the 2009-2010 season with the Juventil A (Real Madrid youth academy team) that Morata started to grab attention. Morata won two youth titles and scored 34 goals in the campaign, drawing praise from then manager of the first team Jose Mourinho.

He was then promoted from the youth academy to the Real Madrid Castilla team where he saw increased playing time and was asked to accompany the first team to the United States for preseason play.

Morata made his debut for the Castilla team in August of 2010 and made a quick impact. In December of 2010, Morata was called up to the first team and made his first team debut December 12th against Real Zaragoza coming on late in the game as a substitute.

At the end of his best season thus far of his career, Morata netted his first hat trick in a 7-1 win over Deportivo de la Coruña B. Morata finished the season with 14 league goals tied for the most on the team.

Not only did Morata see great success with his club, but his rise up the international ladder was becoming apparent to Spanish fans as he netted 11 goals in 13 appearances for the Spanish U19 team.

Real Madrid

Morata’s first goal on the first team wouldn’t come until November 11th 2012 but it was the game winner against Levante UD and the goal came just 60 seconds after Morata had been subbed in.

Morata was permanently promoted to the first team in the summer before the 2013/2014 season. His final stats in playing with the Real Madrid Castilla team were 83 appearances with 45 goals.

Following this feat, Morata began to receive regular first team minutes and in the 2013-2014 season with Los Blancos, he was featured in the lineup regularly. It was a very successful season for Morata who played in important games at important times and earned the respect and trust of his teammates and coaches.

Following the Champions League Final triumph over Atletico Madrid in 2014, a game which Morata played 10 minutes of regular time and all of extra time, Juventus agreed to a five year deal with Morata for 20 million euros but with the option for Real Madrid to buy him back if they so wanted.

Before being transferred to Juve, Morata made 37 appearances with the Real Madrid first team and scored 10 goals.

Morata only saw more success when he arrived in Italy immediately making an impact and receiving plenty of playing time. With Juventus, Morata scored 15 goals in 63 appearances and was clutch for Juventus scoring lots of big goals including the extra winner against AC Milan in the Coppa Italia.

Then suddenly early in the summer, Real Madrid decided they wanted to bring Morata back to Spain despite him having just signed a contract extension with Juventus keeping him in Italy until 2020.

But, due to the buy-back clause in the agreement between the two teams, a fee of €30 million was agreed upon and Morata returned to Madrid.

Something that can be easy to forget is that Morata is only 23 years old but has an abundance of playing time and experience already under his belt. Morata will be sure to be feature in the Real lineup frequently this season with Karim Benzema still battling injury.