Alfredo Morelos

Alfredo José Morelos Aviléz (born 21 June 1996) is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Scottish Premiership club Rangers and the Colombia national team.

Morelos began his senior career with Independiente Medellín in his homeland before moving to Finland to play for Helsinki side HJK, initially on loan then permanently. In June 2017, he moved to Scotland to join Rangers, for a reported fee of £1m. Morelos currently holds the club record for most goals scored in European competitions with 29 goals.

Morelos played youth international football for Colombia at under-17 and under-20 levels. He was a member of the under-20 team that were runners-up in the 2015 South American U-20 Championship. Morelos made his senior international debut for Colombia in 2018 and was part of the squad that finished third at the 2021 Copa América.

Early life

Born in Cereté, Colombia, Morelos lived with his sisters, his parents and his grandmother, but after joining Independiente Medellín, he had to live away from his family. Morelos said in an interview with AS.com that he is married. While in Finland, Morelos said though it was tough to adapt to the country, as his family decided to stay in Colombia and he had to travel to South America to be with them. Morelos also revealed that it was his father who got him into football and goalscoring.

Club career

Independiente Medellín

2014 season

Morelos began his career at Independiente Medellín in 2011 at the age of 15 and worked his way through the academy ranks he was promoted to the first team by then manager Hernán Darío Gómez, he made his Independiente Medellín debut aged 18 years and 22 days, in a 2–2 draw with Rionegro Águilas in the Copa Colombia group stage on 13 July 2014 coming on as a 74th-minute substitute. On 24 July 2014 Morelos started his first game for Independiente Medellín and scored his first ever senior goal aged 18 years, 1 month and 3 days in a 2–0 win over Evigado in the Copa Colombia. 7 days later on 31 July 2014 Morelos scored a brace in two minutes in a 3–2 win over Jaguares de Córdoba during a Copa Colombia group B match taking his tally to 3 goals in 3 games. Morelos featured three more times for Independiente Medellín in the group stage of the competition scoring a further two goals, one against Leones on 21 August 2014 in a 3–0 win and one 7 days later against Evigado in a 1–1 draw. Independiente Medellín finished second in their group with 21 points, level on points with first placed Atlético Nacional and progressed through to the last 16 of the 2014 Copa Colombia but where defeated 5–2 on aggregate by Deportes Tolima, Morelos made an appearance in both legs of the tie.

Morelos made his Categoría Primera A debut for Independiente Medellín on 31 August 2014 in a 3–0 win over Águilas Doradas coming on as an 82nd-minute substitute. 6 days later on 6 September 2014, Morelos scored his first Categoría Primera A goal for Independiente Medellín during injury time against Fortaleza Esporte Clube to win the match 3–2 in the 92nd minute. Morelos made a further four appearances in the 2014 Categoría Primera A but the goal against Fortaleza would be his last of the season.

Independiente Medellín finished runners-up to Independiente Santa Fe in the 2014 Finalización after losing the final 3–2 on aggregate, Morelos made an appearance in the 2nd leg of the tie on 21 December 2014 coming on as a 66th-minute substitute in a 1–1 draw.

Morelos ended the 2014 season with fourteen appearances and six goals in all competitions for Independiente Medellín and received a 2014 Categoría Primera A Finalización runner-up medal.

2015 season

Morelos made eleven appearances in all competitions in the 2015 season, six in the Categoría Primera A and five in the Copa Colombia but failed to find the net in any of the matches. Independiente Medellín reached the final of the Categoría Primera A 2015 Apertura but were defeated 2–1 on aggregate by Deportivo Cali with Morelos coming as a 68th-minute substitute in the 2nd leg on 8 June 2015 which ended 1-1, earning Morelos his second runner-up medal.

In January 2016 it was reported in the Colombian media that Morelos was linked with a move away from Independiente Medellín to European side HJK Helsinki.

Morelos made a total of twenty five appearances for Independiente Medellín scoring six goals in all competitions during his time with the club.

HJK

2016 season

On 5 February 2016, HJK announced the signing of Morelos on loan, with an option of buying the striker on a permanent basis.

Morelos made an immediate impact on his debut four days later in the Finnish League Cup, coming on as a substitute in the Stadin derby against HIFK and scored in the 90th minute to make the game 3–3. A week later on 18 February 2016, Morelos scored a brace in the League Cup once again, in a 2–2 draw against Inter Turku. Morelos also made an impact in the league and started the season well scoring six goals in the first five matches against VPS, RoPS (twice), SJK and AC Kajaani (twice). Morelos would then not score for six matches before scoring against rivals HIFK in a 2–1 win on 26 May 2016, Morelos scored his first and only hat–trick for HJK and the first of his career aged 19 years, 11 months and 25 days in the Finnish Cup, in a 4–1 win over KuPS on 15 June 2016, he followed this up by scoring in a 3–2 win over SJK in the league three days later. Five days later, on 23 June 2016, he scored in the semi–final of the Finnish Cup, in a 3–0 win over Lahti to send them through to the final.

In the UEFA Europa League Qualifiers, Morelos scored four goals in six UEFA Europa League appearances against Atlantas (twice), Beroe Stara Zagora and IFK Göteborg all of which were in the first leg of each tie, HJK where deafted 3–2 on aggregate by IFK Göteborg after a 2–0 defeat away in the Third qualifying round and exited the competition. He then scored four more league goals by August against PK-35 Vantaa, FC Lahti, KuPS (twice) and scored against KuPS for the third time in another encounter weeks later on 28 August 2016. After scoring five goals in six league matches against PS Kemi, Lahti, RoPS, HIFK, and Mariehamn and scoring HJK's only goal in the final of the Finnish Cup against SJK which ended 1-1 after full-time (though the club lost 7–6 in the penalty shoot–out with Morlelos scoring his penalty), Morelos was named September Player of the Month. Morelos scored in the second last game of the season against title challengers, IFK Mariehamn, on 14 October 2016 which ended in a 1–1 draw. However, he was unable to help the club win the league after IFK Mariehamn won it by three points in the last game of the season after HJK drew 0–0 with SJK and IFK Mariehamn defeated Ilves 2–1.

At the end of the 2016 season, Morelos finished HJK's top goal scorer in the league with sixteen goals in thirty appearances and top goal scorer in all competitions with thirty goals in forty three appearances, he was also runner-up top goalscorer in the league missing out on the top spot by one goal to Roope Riski who finished the season with seventeen goals. Morelos earned a Veikkausliiga runner-up medal, a Finnish Cup runner-up medal and was awarded the league's best striker of the year award.

2017 season

HJK took up their option to sign Morelos permanently and he started 2017 by scoring in the first game of the season in a 3–2 victory over FC Honka on 28 January 2017 in the Finnish Cup group stage. He followed this up by scoring three goals in the remaining four group games against KTP, GrlFK, and HIFK. The latter being in a 4–0 win over HJK's Derby rivals on 1 March 2017, which was HJK's biggest win over HIFK since 1984 when they beat HIFK 9–1 in the Finnish Cup. Morelos helped HJK finish top of their group with five wins out of five and progress through to the Quarter-final. On 1 April 2017 Morelos scored the only goal in the 75th minute in a 1–0 victory over Ilves in the Finnish Cup Semi-final to send HJK into the final and take his tally up to five goals in seven cup matches.

Morelos got off the mark in his first 2017 Veikkausliiga league match on 5 April 2017 when he scored in a 5–0 win over VPS, five days later Morelos scored in a 2–0 victory over KuPS. Between 23 April 2017 and 19 May 2017 Morelos would score six goals over five consecutive matches against JJK, Inter Turku, VPS, Ilves (twice), and PS Kemi. Morelos would not score in HJK's next two games which both ended as 0-0 draws against HIFK and Lahti, then scored a brace on 31 May 2017 in a 6–0 win over SJK. For his excellent form and goalscoring which included ten goals in eleven appearances Morelos was awarded the Veikkausliiga Player of the month for both April 2017 and May 2017. Morelos scored his final goal for HJK in his last match for the club before his transfer to Rangers on 4 June 2017 in a 4–1 victory over RoPS.

Despite leaving halfway through the Finnish season Morelos finished as HJK's second top goalscorer for the 2017 season after he scored eleven league goals in twelve appearances, five cup goals in seven appearances and sixteen goals over nineteen appearances in all competitions and was joint-seventh top goalscorer in the 2017 Veikkausliiga. HJK went on to win the 2017 Veikkausliiga by twenty points and the 2016–17 Finnish Cup defeating SJK 1–0 in the final on 23 September 2017 with Morelos receiving two winners medals for his contributions over the season.

Morelos made a total of sixty two appearances for HJK scoring forty six goals, he won three player of the month awards, one striker of the year award and two trophies during his time at the club.

Rangers

2017–18 season

Morelos signed a three-year deal with Rangers on 19 June 2017 for an undisclosed fee, which was widely reported to be £1 million.

He made his debut for Rangers in a 1–0 home win against Progrès Niederkorn in the Europa League first qualifying round first leg ten days later, coming on in the 77th minute in place of Martyn Waghorn. On 9 August, Morelos scored his first two Rangers goals in a 6–0 win over Dunfermline Athletic also at Ibrox in the second round of the Scottish League Cup. Three days later he scored his first goal in the Scottish Premiership, heading the team into an early lead in a 3–2 home loss to Hibernian. He quickly became a favourite with Rangers supporters, who nicknamed him ''El Bufalo''.

He finished the season with 18 goals, tied (with Josh Windass) as the club's top scorer for the season; 14 of those strikes were in the league, the second-highest total behind Kris Boyd of Kilmarnock.

2018–19 season

Rangers started the season playing in the UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds, and goals against NK Osijek and NK Maribor from Morelos helped Rangers progress to the group stages of the tournament. However, a sign of future disciplinary issues arose when he was sent off against Aberdeen at Pittodrie Stadium in the opening league fixture for a kick out at an opponent, although the red card was rescinded on appeal. He continued to score goals early in the season; scoring in 2–0 win over St Mirren in the league, and netting a hat trick in a 3–1 win over Kilmarnock in the League Cup. In September 2018 he signed a new contract with Rangers, until 2022. After several games without a goal, he resumed his goalscoring form on 26 September 2018 when he netted Rangers second goal in a 5–1 win over St Johnstone. Morelos then went on to score 10 goals in the next 13 games, including a brace in a 3–1 win over Rapid Vienna in the Europa League.

On 6 February 2019, Morelos scored twice in a 4–2 victory away at Aberdeen but also received his fourth red card of the season and his third against the same rival opposition (one was later rescinded). Manager Steven Gerrard stated that he was trying to help the player, and the club appealed the latest red card from the Aberdeen game. The appeal was unsuccessful, but Morelos was able to play in a Scottish Cup