Bargain buy turns hot property

Fernando Morientes, the best-paid player in French football, is proving to be the bargain of the season for Monaco.The Spanish striker took ...

Fernando Morientes, the best-paid player in French football, is proving to be the bargain of the season for Monaco.

The Spanish striker took a huge gamble moving from Real Madrid to the casino principality where he plays in front of a few thousand fans in a ground built over a car park.

However, it is Morientes, Monaco’s talisman, who will be playing in the Champions League final on May 26, not Ronaldo, David Beckham and the other “galacticos” from Madrid.

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His second half goal finished off Chelsea in Wednesday’s semi-final second leg and at the final whistle Morientes, shaking his head in disbelief and staring into the night sky, seemed overwhelmed by what he had achieved.

“I’m still on a high,” he said. “This is incredible and I just want to enjoy it as long as it lasts.”

Coach Didier Deschamps persuaded Morientes to leave Real on loan early in the season after Monaco’s Shabani Nonda, the top scorer in Ligue 1 last season, was badly injured.

The 28-year-old has become the pivot around which a talented Monaco team turns. His ability both to score goals and set up others, particularly with his head, has thrilled a country which nurtured the skills of Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry.