José Luis Morales Nogales (; born 23 July 1987) is a Spanish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a winger or

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for Levante. A

late bloomer A late bloomer is a person whose talents or capabilities are not visible to others until later than usual. The term is used metaphorically to describe a child or adolescent who develops slower than others in their age group, but eventually catche ...

, he only reached

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

at the age of 27, with Levante, and spent most of his career with the club while appearing in 311 competitive matches and scoring 69 goals in his first spell. He also won the

2016–17 Segunda División The 2016–17 Segunda División season, also known as LaLiga 1, 2, 3 for sponsorship reasons, was the 86th since its establishment. The fixtures were announced on 15 July 2016. Name Previously named Liga Adelante, the competition was renamed LaL ...

Club career

Early career

Born in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, Morales only played amateur football well into his 20s. At 10 or 11 years of age, he had unsuccessful trials with

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

. A Brunete youth graduate, he made his senior debut in the

Tercera División Tercera División () was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Until 1977, it was the third tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segund ...

with

Parla Parla () is a municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain. It is located in the southern part of the region, approximately 20 km from the capital, Madrid. History Origins Earliest evidence of human occupation includes stone tools m ...

. Morales signed with

Fuenlabrada Fuenlabrada () is a city and municipality of Spain located in the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 193,586, making it the region's fourth most populated municipality. Placename The etymology of ''Fuenlabrada'' comes from the contra ...

also in the fourth division – and the

Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities and 50 provinces of Spain, provinces of Spain. It is located at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula and Meseta Central, Central Plateau (); its capital and largest munici ...

– in 2010. He scored a career-best 20 goals in his only season, in an eighth-place finish.

Levante

On 1 July 2011, Morales joined Levante, being assigned to the reserves in the fourth tier and promoting in his first season, with the player contributing 14 goals in 41 matches. On 17 April 2013, he agreed to a new two-year deal and was promoted to the main squad. Morales was loaned to

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

club

Eibar Eibar (, ) is a city and municipality within the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Autonomous Community of Euskadi. It is the capital of the '' eskualde / comarca'' of Debabarrena. Eibar has 27,138 inhabitants ( Eustat, 2018). Its chief industry is ...

on 30 July 2013. He played his first game as a professional on 18 August 2013, starting in a 2–1 away win against

Real Jaén Real Jaén Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Jaén, Spain, Jaén, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1929 it plays in , holding home matches at ''Nuevo Estadio de La Vict ...

. Morales scored his first professional goal on 27 October 2013, the second in the 2–0 victory at

Barcelona B Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within cit ...

. He added a further two in 40 competitive appearances during the campaign, helping the

Basques The Basques ( or ; ; ; ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a Basque culture, common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Basques are indigenous peoples, ...

to a first-ever promotion to

. Back to Levante, Morales made his top-flight debut on 30 August 2014, starting in a 3–0 away loss to

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

. He scored his first goal in the competition on 4 October, in a 3–3 draw at former side Eibar. On 29 May 2015, Morales renewed his contract with the

Valencians Valencians ( ; ) are the native people of the Valencian Community, in eastern Spain. Since 2006, the Valencian people are officially recognised in the Valencian Statute of Autonomy as a ''nationality'' "within the unity of the Spanish nation". ...

, signing until 2019. He scored 12 times in 2018–19, adding five assists for the 15th-placed team. Morales netted 13 goals in

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, establishing himself as Levante's all-time scorer in the top division. He repeated the feat the following season (with seven assists), but was not able to prevent relegation.

Villarreal

On 24 June 2022,

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

announced the signing of Morales on a two-year deal. On 6 October, he scored a second-half

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

as a substitute in the 5–0 home win over

Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (), known in English as Austria Vienna, and Austria Wien in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian professional association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the most trophies of any Aust ...

in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

of the

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual association football, football competition organised since 2021 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European foot ...

. Morales scored a further three times on 26 November 2023 in the 3–1 league victory against

Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Pamplona, Navarre. It was founded on 24 October 1920 and plays in La Liga, the top division of Spanish ...

, this time as a starter.

Levante return

On 5 July 2024, the

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

Morales returned to Levante on a one-year contract. He and Roger Brugué led all players in the squad in the first season of his second spell with 11 goals, in a top-flight promotion as champions; in addition, in took part in all 42 league games.

Honours

Eibar *

: 2013–14 Levante *Segunda División: 2016–17, 2024–25 Individual *

Segunda División Player of the Month The Player of the Month is an association football award that recognises the best Segunda División player for each month of the season. Winners Multiple winners The following table lists the number of awards won by players who have won at leas ...

: December 2013

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morales, Jose Luis 1987 births Living people 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Madrid Men's association football wingers Men's association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players AD Parla players CF Fuenlabrada footballers Atlético Levante UD players Levante UD footballers SD Eibar footballers Villarreal CF players