Álvaro Morata confirms Spanish record Chelsea bid for his services this summer

For much of the summer transfer window, rumors kept linking Chelsea with 23-year-old striker Álvaro Morata. The Spanish international, who was signed by Antonio Conte back at Juventus two years ago, had just returned to his original club Real Madrid thanks to a €30 million buyback clause; Chelsea were reportedly offering well over twice that, up to €75 million, to prize him away.

Ultimately, Chelsea weren’t able to make this transfer a reality, and Real decided to keep him as the successor to Karim Benzema. But it wasn’t for lack of trying, as Morata himself confirmed recently.

"Chelsea showed the most interest in signing me. Antonio Conte had already signed me for Juventus and it would have been a very good offer this time - I would have been the most expensive Spanish player ever."

"They offered roughly 70 million euros, but [Real Madrid] said that they had me in their plans and that was always my dream."

-Álvaro Morata; Source: Sport Bild via Football España

The current transfer record for a Spanish player is held by Fernando Torres, who made a that infamous Deadline Day switch in the winter of 2011 from Liverpool to Chelsea for £50 million — around €59 million at the time the transfer was made. Breaking this record to acquire Morata wouldn’t be very good business however, even if he had a good showing during the Euros for the Spanish national team. Luckily Madrid were none the wiser and didn't just take our money and run to the bank...