Many iconic centre forwards have donned the famous white shirt of Real Madrid. Morientes, who turns 40 today, cannot lay credit to being in the same bracket as the likes of Ferenc Puskas, Ronaldo or Raul. But his partnership with the latter mentioned from 1997-2005 rightly earns his place as a club great.
He was the hard-working target man alongside Raul for club and country during many of his celebrated team-mate’s most-productive years. Morientes first came to notice at Albacete, with a successful spell at Real Zaragoza leading to a switch to the capital giants. A solid 72 goals in 182 appearances followed before he was sold to Liverpool. Several moves around Europe followed before he retired in 2010. An international record of 27 strikes in 47 games for Spain also stands testament to his quality.
1960: Hiromi Taniguchi, a former Japanese long-distance runner who won the London and Tokyo Marathons (56).
1962: Richard Gough (soccer) – former Rangers and Scotland defender (54).
1973: Brendan Cannon, ex-rugby union hooker who played 42 times for Australia from 2001-06 (43).
1973: Peter Nicol (squash) – retired former world number one who switched his allegiance from Scotland to England (43).
1975: John Hartson (soccer) – former Celtic and Wales striker (41).
1976: Kim Collins (athletics) – former men’s 100m world champion from St Kitts & Nevis (40).
1980: Matt Bonner, a veteran power forward for the San Antonio Spurs who is a two-time NBA champion (36).
1982: Thomas Hitzlsperger, ex-Germany midfielder who earned nickname ‘Der Hammer’ for his fierce shots (34).