It’s been a tough 12 months or so for Alvaro Morata at Chelsea, but after finding the back of the net twice recently, he’s returned to the Spain national team.
Missing out on the World Cup after his poor season under Antonio Conte, the striker also underwent a rather lengthy goal drought in Europe, which he put an end to earlier this month when he scored against MOL Vidi in the Europa League.
After the game, it was reported that Morata was seen crying after he scored, but the player has come out and denied that, explaining the situation to El Mundo.
He said: “I don’t have to be happy for scoring against a far inferior team. What’s more is that I should have scored more than one, and that’s why I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t crying, or doing a lot of things that people said.
“In England, they take advantage of these situations because they don’t have the same standard with me than with other people, but hey, as long as they’re talking, it means you’re there and they, one way or another, want you to have bad luck.”
Transferring from Real Madrid to Chelsea, knowing he would have a better chance of making the World Cup if he wasn’t playing second fiddle to Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, Morata’s move feels like it backfired.
He explained: “I learned a lot last year because it was very difficult. I left my home to be in Russia, and in the end I didn’t go to the World Cup, and all you can do is learn from these things even if they’re hard to go through.
“Luckily, I had my wife who always supported me, and the birth of my kids made everything more bearable, it was amazing. I learned to control my emotions, both positive and negatives.”
One of the mistakes he made last year was to try and play through some pain after his good start to the season, where he scored seven goals in seven games.
Now, with Maurizio Sarri at the Chelsea helm, he’ll just be looking to build on his last two goals.
