Morientes joins Valencia
ByReuters
Published 25/05/2006 at 21:54 GMT
Liverpool striker Fernando Morientes has joined Valencia for an undisclosed fee, the Premier League club said on its website on Thursday. The 30-year-old Spanish international struggled to find his feet at Liverpool after joining from Real Madrid in January last year.
FOOTBALL liverpool morientes
Image credit: Reuters
The 30-year-old Spanish international struggled to find his feet at Liverpool after joining from Real Madrid in January last year and scored just 12 goals in 61 games for the Merseysiders.
Valencia, who finished third in the Primera Liga last season, have made it clear that they were looking for another striker to partner leading scorer David Villa for next season, but they have not yet confirmed the deal.
Morientes made his first division debut with Albacete in 1993 and joined Real Zaragoza two years later where he went on to score 28 league goals in two seasons.
His free-scoring form brought him to the attention of Real Madrid who signed him for an estimated 6.6 million euros in 1997.
The striker won three European Cups and two league titles with Real but the arrival of Ronaldo in 2002 pushed him down the pecking order and he accepted a loan move to Monaco the following season.
He exacted revenge against Real when he helped Monaco knock his old side out of Champions League quarter-finals by scoring in both legs of an away goals win.
He finished as competition's top scorer with nine goals, although Monaco were beaten 3-0 by Porto in the final.
Although he returned to Real Madrid at the start of the 2004-2005 season, the signing of Michael Owen blocked his path to the first team and he decided to accept a move to Liverpool for nine million euros in January.
Having played for Real in the Champions League qualifiers he missed out on Liverpool's triumphant European campaign last year and never managed to live up to his billing in the Premiership.
Manager Rafael Benitez said he expected Morientes to find his form in his second season, but the striker continued to struggle and scored just nine goals in all competitions.
Although he has an impressive strike rate for Spain, scoring 26 goals in 43 international appearances, his disappointing season at Liverpool led to his omission from the squad for next month's World Cup.
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