When Manchester City signed Marlos Moreno and Gabriel Jesus, in the same transfer window two years ago, it really seemed like Pep Guardiola was getting two super talented South American youngsters.
The Colombian winger had just won the Copa Libertadores with Atletico Nacional, and had great expectations around him. But he ended up being loaned to Deportivo La Coruña for one season, while the Brazilian stayed in Manchester.
Moreno couldn’t score a single goal in 22 matches in his season at La Coruña. And in the summer of 2017 he was loaned out to Spain again, this time to Girona. With no goals in four appearances, it was decided to cut his spell short.
So it was time to return to South America.
In January, Moreno joined Flamengo, who have a quite expensive team by Brazilian standards, and started the season as a contender for all possible titles.
But little by little, things are falling apart. Flamengo couldn’t win the State Championship, got eliminated from Copa Libertadores in August, and this week were knocked out of the Copa do Brasil in the semifinal by Corinthians.
The club even spent some rounds on top of the Brazilian league table, which is all they have to dispute now, but have recently dropped to fourth place with 12 fixtures to go.
Worryingly, Moreno isn’t even a regular starter at Flamengo, as he normally only has some minutes at the end of the game to try to use his speed to help the team.
His last official goal was scored in March 2016, months before being signed by Manchester City. Quite a bad record for an attacker, who keeps trying to find the same good form he had at Atletico Nacional.
