Alberto Moreno: Back in Spain
After a successful sojourn in jolly old England, Spanish native Alberto Moreno has finally returned home to LaLiga, this time sporting the famous yellow jersey for Villarreal CF. A talented left-back, Alberto Moreno is known for his aggressive playing style and desire to attack, an obvious product of his outgoing and extroverted personality. He’s an ambitious man on and off the pitch with a fascinating rise to success at one of the greatest teams in the Premier League.
Moreno was born on 5 July 1992 in Sevilla, Spain, where he has lived for most of his life. Being a talented player from the start, he joined up with Sevilla’s youth team at the age of 13 and began training to be a part of the first team. After years of working hard, he joined Sevilla Atlético, Sevilla’s reserve team, in 2011. At this club, Moreno developed his ability to switch between defending and attacking, always keeping his opponents on their toes and having the tactical prowess to use that confusion to set up plays for his teammates. The management at Sevilla appreciated his skills, and less than one year later, he played for the first team.
By the 2013/14 season, Moreno was playing for Sevilla FC regularly, and his talent caught the attention of Liverpool FC, who bought him right before the start of the following season. After a tearful farewell to the team that started his career and had been a part of his life for ten years, Moreno joined the Reds.
He found amazing success with Liverpool. After winning the 2013/14 Europa League with fellow Villarreal star Carlos Bacca at Sevilla, he went on to help take the Reds to sixth place in the Premier League in his first ever season with them. Around this time, he made his debut on the international stage, joining the Spanish national team as a provisional player in both the 2014 and 2018 FIFA World Cup. All of this culminated in one of his greatest successes when he and the Reds won the 2018/19 Champions League, an accomplishment so important to him that he wrote specifically wrote about it in his farewell to the club: “Thank you…for helping me to fulfil one of my childhood dreams by winning the Champions League and, in doing so, to become a small part of the history of the his great club.”
Unfortunately, things became harder for Moreno at Liverpool. In the 2018/19 season, Moreno barely saw less time on the pitch, having been replaced as the main left-back by Andrew Robertson the previous season. In an interview with Marca following his signing with the Yellow Submarine, Moreno admitted, “My last year and a half was a little odd, but I want to leave the past behind me; this is the present.” After his contract ran out at Liverpool, Villarreal was happy to pick him up, and Moreno seems overjoyed to make his return to Spain. “I am very happy to be here, to belong to this magnificent club…. Villarreal has always been a great club, which has always caught my attention, and I’m lucky to be wearing their shirt.”
We’re lucky to have him too. We cannot wait to see the talent and skill that Alberto Moreno brings to the team as our newest left back. Submarine fans are already excited to have him on the team. There and back again, Moreno returns to his home country of Spain in a triumphant fashion.
