Álvaro Morata's loan to Atlético Madrid (2019)
Chelsea loaned Morata to Atlético in January 2019 with an option to buy after he struggled in the Premier League. He scored six goals in 15 La Liga games, and Atlético triggered the option that summer.
Morata became Atlético's main striker and later returned for a second spell in 2024.
The loan-with-option became Atlético's standard method for buying strikers.
This is the success case for the mechanism Atlético is using with David: a striker who struggled at a bigger club gets a reset in Madrid.
