I DON’T CARE IF IT BOBBLES IN OFF MY KNEE OR GOES IN OFF MY A***! IN FOCUS
CHELSEA’S ALVARO MORATA ON THAT CHANT AND HOW RONALDO INSPIRED HIS HEADING HEROICS...
‘Cheer me on, sing my name, sing songs about Chelsea but let’s avoid this chant’
HIS smile broadening, Alvaro Morata reels off some of his managerial influences. ‘Last week I saw a photograph from the FIFA coaches’ conference,’ he says. ‘And as I scanned across, I am thinking, “I’ve played under Zinedine Zidane, Carlo Ancelotti, and Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid. Then there was Max Allegri at Juventus. Now I am with Antonio Conte, who originally signed me for Juve”. I am only missing a Guardiola or a Klopp!’
Morata, the strapping new Chelsea forward signed for £58million from Real Madrid this summer, is not intentionally namedropping here.
This 24-year-old has simply enjoyed a remarkable start to his career in football.
He scored more than 100 goals coming through the ranks at Real Madrid and in his spell at Juventus, and won 12 major trophies including four league titles. He was part of two Champions League winning squads at Madrid and scored in the 3-1 final defeat by Barcelona in 2015 for Juventus.
Morata has shared dressing rooms with football’s most recognisable names; from Cristiano Ronaldo to Gianluigi Buffon at club level and a host of World Cup winners with Spain.
It goes some way to explaining why this engaging Spaniard is not fazed when asked to comment on one of the week’s more delicate topics.
Chelsea fans have taken rapidly to their new frontman, so much so that their terrace chant for Morata at Leicester City last Saturday included an anti-Semitic reference to Tottenham supporters.
Chelsea have described the chants as ‘unacceptable’ while Morata had already asked that supporters ‘respect everyone’ in a Tweet.
‘It’s clearly a sensitive issue,’ Morata begins. ‘There are many ways to enjoy yourself at a game and to cheer on your team or your favourite players.
‘But I am clear. I am against any songs that will offend people on the basis of religion or race. We need to cut it out.
‘Football is only a sport, let’s use it as a positive vehicle. It’s not just that but there are kids who follow us and who want to be like us one day and we need to set the best example to them in the stands.
‘By all means, cheer me on, sing my name, sing songs about Chelsea but let’s avoid this chant.
‘The fans have been extremely welcoming to me and hopefully we can move forwards together now.’ MORATA is sincere in his views and thoughtful company. This is his first newspaper interview since joining Chelsea and it is not often that he has had the chance to pause and think as he comes to terms with the helter-skelter pace of the English Premier League.
In a lavish summer window where £58million (rising to beyond £70m with add-ons) does not appear extraordinary, it is worth remembering that Morata’s transfer makes him the most expensive player in Chelsea’s history and the most expensive Spanish footballer in the world.
‘When I first came, I felt a lot of pressure,’ he says. ‘The price tag is a big deal. I missed an important penalty in the Community Shield. I knew straight away that I would need to grit my teeth and that there would be a load of criticism.
‘It only made me more determined to prove any critics wrong and work harder than ever before.’
Morata arrived amid a backdrop of unease during a peculiar summer at Chelsea.
It featured the Diego Costa episode, several stories of transfer targets that went awry and an opening day defeat by Burnley at Stamford Bridge.
Morata started the 3-2 defeat on the bench but came on to score.
Conte immediately set him on a weight-gaining programme and Morata has added muscle without sacrificing pace. He has scored three goals and provided two assists already.
Curiously, all five of those moments have come courtesy of Morata’s head, so you can quite imagine the carnage that might ensue once he discovers his shooting boots.
He grins and says: ‘If I score every game with my head, no problem.
‘I don’t care if it’s a bobble off my knee or it goes in off my a***, a goal is a goal!
‘At Real Madrid, I did heading drills with Cristiano Ronaldo. You see him go up for headers, that spring and power, he is a real beast. At Juventus, I saw Fernando Llorente, how he finds space and directs his headers. I like the physical challenge.
‘Last week, I played against Wes Morgan and Harry Maguire... big guys. Cesc Fabregas was putting in good corners that I thought I could get to and bury but there were some coming in and I couldn’t even get a jump up against those guys. But then I got between them to score. You have to be clever.
‘I’m not worried — at Juve I trained against Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci every day.’
He screws up his face and winces. He has compared playing against Chiellini as akin to going ‘into a cage with a hungry gorilla and trying to take his food’.
‘Kick, kick, kick!,’ he laughs. ‘Pepe at Real Madrid is a great guy — he didn’t kick me as much.
‘I think the Italians saw this handsome kid coming from Madrid, where it is a bit softer, and it was a good education. They were great mentors.’
At Juventus, there were testing times. On one occasion, he went 100 days without scoring a goal. A young man in a foreign country, confidence began to ebb away and he became a little withdrawn.
‘It’s hard as a striker. It’s cut and dry. Your job is to put the ball in the back of the net. OK — we like to say how a striker influences matches in other ways but let’s not pretend. At the end of the season, the best striker everyone talks about is the top scorer. In
‘During a barren spell at Juve, I changed my car, my haircut and my boots to break the duck’
that period, where I couldn’t score, you start driving yourself mad. It goes through your head constantly “I need a goal, I need a goal”. The more you think, the harder it gets. Goals flow when you play with a smile and don’t think too much.
‘I can over-analyse. I think a lot, maybe too much, about chances I’ve missed. Sometimes I’ve scored in a game we have won but I will go home and watch the chance again or say to my wife, “I should have scored there”.
‘At Juve, during that spell, I changed my car, my haircut, my boots, everything to try to end the duck. The dressing room helped me through. They were direct, face-to-face. They’d give it to you straight. No secrets or hiding, it was like a family.
‘When you have a problem at Juve, you don’t moan and you don’t cry, you confront it, work through it together and improve yourself. I speak with Buffon still and we swapped shirts after the Italy game against Spain recently.’ MORATA recovered his form and credits his wife, the Italian model Alice Campello, with improving his mindset and approach to life. They are a vibrant couple, who have posed for celebrity magazines in Spain and married this summer in Venice. His marriage proposal went viral on the internet when he hijacked a magic show in Madrid to go down on one knee in front of a 1,000-strong audience.
‘I was so nervous. I was leaving the house with the ring, getting everything ready. She had no idea what was coming. I was so shifty that I think she thought I was seeing someone else!’
After two years at Juventus, Real Madrid exercised their option to buy Morata back last summer.
Madrid briefly considered selling him immediately to cash in on his progress. Tottenham showed an interest, and Conte also made direct contact with Morata.
As it transpired, Zidane decided to keep Morata at the club and he contributed 20 goals as Real won La Liga and the Champions League. Yet he did not start any of the knockout rounds of the Champions League as Zidane preferred Karim Benzema to spearhead the attack. On the eve of a World Cup year, Morata made the decision to leave.
‘Zidane wanted me to stay and I was happy in Madrid. But I couldn’t stay to be a substitute.
‘You reach a point where you need to play, to grow up, to escape a comfort zone. It’s about being comfortable. I don’t want that. I am ambitious and hungry to succeed. For Spain, the more I play, the more goals I score, the more chance I have of making the World Cup and starting games.’
Morata’s transfer to Chelsea did not always appear clear-cut. At one stage, it seemed Morata would be destined for Manchester United to be reunited with Mourinho, the man who took him on three pre-season tours as a teenager and gave him his Real Madrid debut. So was there contact from Mourinho?
‘Yes. I had various offers this summer, not only Chelsea and Manchester United but also from different leagues. It was a good situation for me. The most important and best conversation I had was with Conte, he wanted me to come here.
‘At the start of the summer, I didn’t know that Chelsea were interested in me. I thought they were in for a different player.’
Does he mean Lukaku? ‘Maybe Lukaku or maybe someone else, I don’t know. I didn’t think the option of Chelsea was open.
‘But I spoke with Conte several times — and not only this summer.
‘I felt in debt to him. He signed me for Juventus but left very quickly to manage Italy.
‘I always wanted to play for him after that. It was only two months with him but it felt like I’d known him for ever. ‘When I knew he wanted me this summer, I didn’t think twice. I did everything I could to make the move happen. ‘Last summer it was close. Cesar Azpilicueta was a bit annoyed because he had already started house-hunting for me last summer. We’d even got estate agents on board. ‘This time Cesar has sorted everything! ‘When I spoke to Conte last summer, I said, “If I’m going to leave Real Madrid, it will only be for Chelsea”. ‘I remember I was with my wife after listening to him and I said, “Chelsea are going to win the league this season”. ‘And that’s exactly what happened. Now we need to repeat it!’