Could Alvaro Morata Be Real Madrid's Next Local Legend or the One Who Gets Away?

There wasn't a lot of time—there rarely is—so there was only one thing for it. Setting off at a sprint and only getting faster, trailing the play before surging ahead of it, he went beyond team-mates one by one, overrunning opponents two and three at a time. Arriving at the perfect moment, he'd travelled from one box to the other with that unique urgency, pleasing the TV analysts and their computerised lines; he'd already put it in the net before this, but it hadn't counted.

This one did. He'd done it again. 

If there's one thing Alvaro Morata knows how to do, it's score when given only the briefest of chances to do so. On Sunday night in Real Madrid's 3-0 victory over Real Sociedad at the Santiago Bernabeu, Morata was given less than half an hour to make his mark. For the fifth time this season in such circumstances, he did. 

Running the length of the pitch to powerfully head home Lucas Vazquez's cross, the local lad who's supported Madrid his whole life scored his fifth goal this season as a substitute. No La Liga player has more in that context, and only an esteemed few are getting their goals at a quicker rate. 

After Cristiano Ronaldo (20) and Karim Benzema (12), Morata is next on the scoring charts at the Bernabeu this season with 10. Six of those have come in the league, but that's not quite the number that matters here—it's that he's got them in only 659 minutes of action. Only Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez are getting them faster. 

Such a record should be indicative of a player surging in influence and importance, and yet the quirk in this is that it's not. Despite the goals, despite his injections of energy, Morata remains a slightly peripheral figure, stuck revving the engine with the wheel clamps on. 

He knew the battle for prominence in Chamartin would be tough, but maybe not this tough, especially when playing like this. Of Madrid's 19 league games, he's started only six; of the club's six Champions League outings, he's started only one. 

Last week, El Larguero host Manu Carreno claimed Morata felt betrayed and was looking for alternatives for a second time (h/t AS). Morata responded on Instagram (in Spanish): "No matter what they say #halamadrid forever! This is Madrid and we ALL keep going to the death!"

Of course, he would say that.   

Born in the Spanish capital, Morata tells the classic story of a kid who goes to a famous ground and is wowed by the stars, vowing to return one day as one of them. 

"As a child, I went with my parents and my family to the Bernabeu and I remember that one day we were watching El Clasico; I said to my father, 'Someday I will play here.' As it turned out, I did, and it was the greatest sensation that one can feel," he said earlier this month, per AS. 

The Madrileno's path to the Bernabeu included youth stops at Atletico Madrid and Getafe on the southern side of town. Real's academy was next, where he progressed through to the Castilla squad and then onto the first team. A spell in Turin with Juventus took him away and was the making of him. Now he's back. 

"It's true that Juventus have an incredible stadium too, but this is the Bernabeu, you just see photos and you get goosebumps. It was my dream, and I was lucky enough to achieve it," he added.

So, the question now becomes how far the achievement can go. Playing at the Bernabeu is one thing; becoming a legend there is another.

At 24, Morata is entering his prime years as an athlete and as a footballer. These are years not to be wasted in one's career, but at Madrid, there are obstacles. The likes of Ronaldo and Gareth Bale are obvious ones, but more relevant here is Benzema. 

The Frenchman is approaching a decade's service at Madrid and is nearing 200 goals. Even if his time has often been turbulent, his is the record of a club great, one whose importance has gone beyond his figures and to the impact he's had on others. 

For so long now, Benzema has been the man who's made Madrid function in attack. He's been the one who's balanced them and linked them together, key to their calibration. Already he's seen off positional challenges from Javier Hernandez and Gonzalo Higuain. But that of Morata feels different. 

After a strong 2015-16 season in which his game grew more focused, Benzema has regressed this term in what had always looked like a fork-in-the-road year. Though he has 12 goals, his presence isn't the same as it was; suddenly, he's less involved and less engaged—almost disconnected. It's not just about numbers and functionality, it's about mood as well. There's a subdued feeling to him, almost as though he's come full circle from former Real manager Jose Mourinho's barb. 

Morata couldn't be more different. A phrase often used for pacey and exuberant footballers is that they "go through gears," but Madrid's younger striker doesn't. He spends entire games redlining it in second and third, engine and tyres screaming. 

Even if there often is a frenetic or over-hyped element to the Spaniard's game, it's undeniable that things happen when he's on the pitch. This season, he's scored late winners as a substitute against Sporting CP and Athletic Club; he grabbed the all-important third against Alaves; he's injected life into games against Legia Warsaw and Real Sociedad.  

There's something about Morata that's difficult to explain but easy to observe. There are aspects of his game that remain raw, but there's an urgency that never goes away, like every minute in every game is about proving something. 

On several occasions this season, it's seemed as though he's proved enough. "He's going to get more minutes," manager Zinedine Zidane said after the forward's later winner against Athletic in October. "[Morata and Vazquez] are convincing me." Three months on, though, those minutes haven't materialised. But you sense it might not be long before they do.  

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"Alvaro is still a young guy, and at times even he doesn't realise how good he is," former team-mate at Juventus, Gianluigi Buffon, said during Euro 2016 last summer. "He has one quality that only great players have, which is that in big games, he is always a protagonist."

Buffon saw that during Morata's time in Turin. With the Italian giants, he scored in both legs of the Champions League semi-final tie against Real Madrid in 2015, and then scored in the final against Barcelona. He scored the goal that won last year's Coppa Italia, scored in four separate Derby d'Italias and struck significant blows against Manchester City and Bayern Munich. 

Big goals and big moments are what Morata does, and he's continued doing it since his return. Such a capacity matters at Madrid. Ditto for his local roots, his age and his sweat-and-substance definition. 

Now, though, the club's challenge is to satisfy him. No matter what footballers are paid and regardless of the teams they're employed by, they don't spend days, weeks, months and years preparing and training to sit in a comfy racing seat come the weekend.  

Though Madrid will know this is where he wants to be, that isn't unconditional. Morata is doing all he can, exhibiting the traits of a potential local legend. It's up to the club to ensure he's not the one who gets away.