Alfredo Morelos

Alfredo Morelos (born 21 June 1996) is a Colombian football player currently playing for HJK.
After starting his career at Independiente Medellín, Morelos made his way through the youth team and progressed to the first team. Despite being young, Morelos, nevertheless, earned a nickname of 'Goleador', due to his scoring form.

Club

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 (twice) and Envigado.

HJK (loan)

After making eleven appearances in all competitions in the 2015 season, it was reported from a 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 as a substitute in the Stadin derby against HIFK and scored the equalizing goal at 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 (twice). 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 Soumi 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 appearance against Atlantas, Beroe Stara Zagora and IFK Göteborg (twice), all of which were first leg. He then scored four more league goals by August against PK-35 Vantaa, FC Lahti, KuPS (twice) 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 (though the club lost 5–4 in the penalty shoot–out), 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 appearance in all competitions, Morelos was awarded the league’s best player of the year.

Morelos was called up by Colombia U17 for the first time in July 2012 and made his Colombia U17 debut in a 0–0 draw against Paraguay U17 on 2 April 2013 and went on to make four appearance for the U17 side.

In September 2014, Morelos was called up by Colombia U20 for the first time and made his Colombia U20 debut on 16 January 2015, in a 1–0 loss against Uruguay U20. Morelos was in the Colombia U20 squad when he finished second in the South American Youth Football Championship.

Club

As of match played 23 October 2016

Born in Cereté, Colombia, Morelos lived with his sisters, his parents and his grandmother, but after joining Independiente Medellín, Morelos had to live away from his families. Morelos said in an interview with AS.com that he is a Christian and is married with his wife. While in Finland, Morelos said though it was tough to adapt to the country, he revealed his family, however, did not follow his suit, preferring to stay in his home country and that he had to travel to Colombia every week to be with them. Morelos also revealed that it was his father who got him into football, which led him to scoring goals.