Carlos del Barco
Seville (Spain), 11 Jan. The transfer of Álex Moreno to English Aston Villa has been the last ‘assistance’ of the side from San Sadurní de Noya to Betis, who arrived in the summer of 2019 from Rayo Vallecano and who leaves after having given him a lot of football, not less passes goal and, at the time of his farewell, a balloon of oxygen to the needy green and white coffers.
The 15 million euros in which the operation with the Birmingham team has been estimated has been the last service provided by Álex Moreno to the team coached by the Chilean Manuel Pellegrini, who has always had the Catalan defender as one of the mainstays of his concept and achievements such as the two consecutive European qualifications and the Copa del Rey won against Valencia in La Cartuja.
The economy has finally been the trigger for the departure of the Verdiblanco winger, who played his last game with the shield of the thirteen bars last Sunday against Rayo Vallecano – a club that will benefit from a percentage of the operation with the ‘villains’- and that he no longer traveled to play the Spanish Super Cup this week in Riyadh.
Two years of losses and an interesting offer for the Sevillian club and the player, in the words of the Verdiblanco president, Ángel Haro, have made a footballer come out, who is also very loved and respected in the Betic dressing room, as his captain, Joaquín, has underlined. Sánchez, who has stressed that “he has left his mark here”.
Álex Moreno had added 1,350 minutes this season in the fifteen games he has played, in which, in addition to the three goal passes counted as assists, he has been a mainstay in Pellegrini’s schemes due to his continuous contribution in the one hundred and five meters of the left wing of Benito Villamarín.
The Chilean coach’s long-back game has found one of its most outstanding interpreters in the Catalan defender due to his ability to go up and down, to open up the field, to offer himself to give options to the game inside people like Sergio Canales or the French Nabil Fekir and, in addition, for his growing defensive contribution after a dubious initial period at Betis.
Alexandre Moreno Lopera, 29, was accompanied by some doubts about his defensive game and his irregularity, for which he was accused in his first year at Villamarín that he was ‘portrayed’ in some goals, that the photos showed forgetfulness that was very he was soon leaving work base behind.
The Barcelona full-back gained confidence thanks to Pellegrini and, along with his passes and Stakhanovism, he also stood out as a goalscorer starting from that left-footed flank in which illustrious names in verdiblanco such as Rafael Gordillo or the Croatian Robert Jarni have preceded him.
With a contract until June 30, 2025, he was about to leave last summer for the historic Nottingham Forest, two-time European champion and recently promoted to the English Premier League, although the man from San Sadurní declined to do so in August to “continue walking together this season”, which he has fulfilled to the letter.
He did it until he said goodbye in Vallecas, although the delicate state of the Betis treasury has imposed its criteria when it comes to transferring a player who ‘endured’ in a summer in which Betis suffered tremendously to register players key due to the restrictions derived from the salary limit of LaLiga.
This circumstance caused players with high chips to leave Betis such as Cristian Tello, who went free to Los Angeles in the MLS, and Marc Bartra, transferred to Turkish Trabzonspor; and that the club had to stagger the registrations of the Mexican Andrés Guardado, the captain Joaquín Sánchez, the Chilean Claudio Bravo and the Brazilian forward William José da Silva, in addition to those of his compatriots Luiz Henrique and Luiz Felipe Ramos, the signings of this course Of the entity.
After ‘resisting’ Nottingham’s offer, the economy has now imposed its implacable logic of balance sheets and caused Álex Moreno to leave for the Premier League in the year in which he will turn thirty in June and begin a new stage in a career that began in Vilafranca.
From that club, he was recruited by the Barcelona youth academy to join his first youth team; and later he signed for Llagostera, where his good performances caught the attention of Mallorca, who signed him the following season.
In July 2014, Álex Moreno joined the ranks of Rayo Vallecano, where he remained until 2019 with the exception of the 2015-2016 season, which he spent on loan at Elche; and from where he ended up at Betis until he said goodbye to Vallecas after having made “a huge leap in quality”, in the words of Joaquín. EFE
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