Alvaro Morata Claims He Would Never Have Left Juventus But For Real Madrid’s Buy-back Clause

Alvaro Morata claims he would never have left Juventus, had he not been ordered back to Real Madrid in 2016.

Alvaro Morata spent two seasons with Juventus , but the deal which saw him move to Turin from Madrid for €22 million in 2014 included a clause which allowed Los Blancos to sign him back for a fixed sum.
Aware that they would likely sell him on for a profit — which eventually happened this summer — Real Madrid activated that option in 2016, buying him back for a reported €30m in 2016, but Morata says he did not enjoy having to move back to Spain, telling La Gazzetta dello Sport that he would still be a Juve player now if he had been given a choice.

“There were contractual agreements to respect, but the disappointment was enormous — I found myself right back where I had started,” Morata said. “They treated me like the lad that I was before my two years in Italy.

“My two years at Juve were fantastic. I was just a lad when I arrived and I was a real footballer when I left. For a Spaniard, Italy is the best place to live. You’ve got all the beauty, history, art, good food and fashion.

“I would never have left Italy and Juve.”

Morata still scored 15 goals in 26 appearances for Real, and won La Liga and the Champions League before joining Chelsea in a move he said started to take shape before the end of last season.

“I came here because they have a coach like Antonio Conte,” he said. “We started to talk about me possibly coming here last spring and, in the end, I actually came to London. There were a series of situations that were favourable, starting with the coach — I knew Conte and I had no problems fitting into his ideas of football.

“[Conte] is demanding, but he gets the best out of his players’ strengths. You can tell that he knows what it is like to be at a big club, first as a player, then as a coach.”