Alfredo Morelos


Alfredo José Morelos Aviléz is a Colombian footballer who plays as a striker for Rangers in the Scottish Premiership, and for the Colombia national team.
Morelos began his senior career with Deportivo 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.

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 every week to be with them. Morelos also revealed that it was his father who got him into football and goalscoring.

Club career

Independiente Medellín

Morelos began his career at Independiente Medellín when he first joined in 2011 and was soon promoted to the first team by then manager Hernán Darío Gómez, where he made his Independiente Medellín debut, in a 3–0 win over Rionegro Águilas in the Categoría Primera A on 1 September 2014. It came three days on 28 August 2014 before when he scored, in a 1–1 draw against Envigado. Five days later on 6 September 2014, Morelos scored his first Independiente Medellín goal, in a 3–2 win over Fortaleza. He went on to finish the 2014 season, making fourteen appearances and scoring six times in all competitions, where he scored four more goals in the Cup against Leones, Jaguares de Córdoba and Envigado.

HJK

After making eleven appearances in all competitions in the 2015 season, it was reported in Colombian media that Morelos was linked with a move to a European side, which turned out to be HJK and then 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 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 when he scored four goals in the first six matches against VPS, RoPS, SJK and AC Kajaani. After scoring against HIFK, Morelos scored his first hat–trick of his HJK career in the Suomen Cup, in a 4–1 win over KuPS on 15 June 2016, followed up scoring in a 3–1 win over SJK 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.
Elsewhere, in the UEFA Europa League Qualifier, Morelos scored three goals in six UEFA Europa League appearances against Atlantas, Beroe Stara Zagora and IFK Göteborg, all of which were first leg. He then scored four more league goals by August against PK-35 Vantaa, FC Lahti, KuPS and scored against them for the second time in another encounter weeks later on 28 August 2016. After scoring six goals in seven competitions, including the final against SJK, Morelos was named September Player of the Month. Morelos scored once during the last month of the season against title challenger, IFK Mariehamn, on 14 October 2016. However, he were unable to help the club win the league after IFK Mariehamn won it on the last game of the season.
After finishing the 2016 season, which saw him scored thirty goals and making forty–three appearances in all competitions, Morelos was awarded the league’s best striker of the year award.

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 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. 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 tie while serving a three-match League ban, and scored four goals in that match, a 5–0 win over Kilmarnock, to take his tally for the 2018–19 campaign to 27 in 39 appearances.
In March 2019 he signed a new contract with Rangers, his second of the 2018–19 season, until 2023. Later that month, Morelos received a straight red card for an incident with Scott Brown in an eventual 1–2 loss for Rangers in the Old Firm derby; it was his fifth sending off of the season. Following the incident, manager Steven Gerrard said he could no longer defend the player. Despite then serving a four-match suspension, Morelos finished as the top goalscorer in the 2018–19 Scottish Premiership with 18 league goals. His goal against Kilmarnock in the last league match of the season was his 100th competitive goal at club level.

2019–20 season

Morelos started the 2019–20 season by scoring a goal against St Joseph's F.C. in the first leg of their Europa League First Qualifying round tie in Gibraltar. He followed this up in the return leg at Ibrox, by scoring his third hat-trick for Rangers. He then scored a goal and made two assists against FC Midtjylland in the Europa League Third Qualifying round. Three days later he came on as a substitute on the 76th minute during Rangers' first home league game of the season against Hibernian and scored a brace in a 6–1 victory, taking his tally to 7 goals in 7 games for the season.
In October 2019, Morelos was allegedly racially abused by Hearts fans after he scored during a match between the two sides. At the end of November, he scored twice in a 2–2 draw away at Feyenoord in the Europa League. In scoring these goals, Morelos became the first Rangers player to score in four consecutive matches in European competition. After the game, manager Gerrard praised Morelos and highlighted his improved disciplinary record over the season to date.
Over the course of a week in December, Morelos failed to score from several chances as Rangers lost the 2019 Scottish League Cup Final 1–0 to Celtic, struck his side's goal in a 1–1 draw with BSC Young Boys which ensured qualification for the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League knockout phase, and netted the winner in a league match away to Motherwell, but was then sent off for a second booking after making gestures to the home supporters during his celebrations. Morelos, however, found himself again the centre of controversy at the end of Rangers' 1–0 league win over Celtic at Parkhead on 29 December. He was sent off for diving, and made some gestures with his hand across his throat as he left the field. Rangers later claimed he had been subjected to racist abuse from Celtic supporters at the game.
By the time of the mid-season break at the end of December, Morelos had scored 28 goals in 35 games. He also set a UEFA individual record for most goals in a European campaign a before Christmas, with 14.

International career

Morelos was called up by Colombia U17 for the first time in July 2012 and made his Colombia U17 debut in a 9–0 win against Paraguay U17 on 2 April 2013. He went on to make four appearances for the U17 side.
In September 2014, Morelos was called up by Colombia U20 for the first time and made his Colombia debut on 16 January 2015, in a 6–0 win against Uruguay. Morelos was in the Colombia squad when they finished runner's-up in the 2015 South American Youth Football Championship.
On 28 August 2018, Morelos received his first call-up to the Colombian senior national team for the friendly matches against Venezuela and Argentina. He made his international debut on 8 September 2018, coming on as a 77th minute substitute against Venezuela. He missed an open goal on 83 minutes, but then in the last minute provided an assist for Yimmi Chará's winning goal for Colombia. He made a further two appearances in March 2019 in friendlies against Japan and South Korea, making his first international start against the latter side. He was not named in the 40-man preliminary squad announced on 16 May for 2019 Copa America, with several media outlets speculating his poor on-field discipline at club level in Scotland contributed to his omission.
Morelos scored his first international goal on 15 November 2019 in a friendly during injury time against Peru as Colombia won the match by 1–0.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

No.DateVenueCapOpponentScoreResultCompetition
115 November 2019Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, United States61–01–0Friendly

Honours

Club

Independiente Medellin
HJK