Monarcas Morelia has always been a “peripheral” club in Mexico.
Representing the city of Morelia from the Michoacán province, it was never considered a large and important club, In particular when compared to clubs from bigger cities such as Guadalajara, Monterrey and Mexico City. Now, they have a chance to shock the country, and potentially win the local title - with the help of their Peruvian striker, Edison Flores, who carries the memorable nickname - “Ears”. Are you listening, Mexico?
Despite their peripheral status, in the early 2000’s Morelia managed to win one championship title and finish in 2nd place twice, gaining recognition and building its reputation as a significant force in Mexican football. The club has since regressed back to its usual place, somewhere in the lower-mid part of the table, with the exception of winning the Mexican cup in 2013. It even found itself struggling against relegation, and the fans were quite pessimistic.
But then, as the story often goes, a new hero emerged from a very unlikely background - Peruvian Striker Raul Ruidiaz took the team through a complete makeover. Ruidiaz influenced his teammates with his winning mentality, encouraging them to excel on the field. While playing for Morelia, he was considered one of the best players in the league. From a relegation candidate the team became a playoff contender, and even finished as runner-up in the Clausura 2017 tournament.
The most amazing thing about Ruidiaz's arrival to Morelia was his initial price tag - an amusing sum of $100K. When he left the team, he was sold for $6m, improving the club's financial situation. Ruidiaz's success led to the arrival of more Peruvian players to the team, but so far without much success. The latest signing was of the Peruvian star, Edison “Orejas” Flores that arrived from the Danish club Aalborg.
Flores is part of the "Golden age" of Peruvian football, and played an important role in the national team's long-anticipated qualification to the FIFA World Cup in Russia, 36 years after their last participation. Flores grew up in Universitario, one of Peru's biggest clubs, and was considered a golden boy even before the age of 18. He then moved on to Spain and played for Villareal, but did not achieve his much anticipated breakthrough. After a couple of years playing for the yellow submarine's sub-team, he returned to Universitario. Two more years of experience prepared him to try his luck in Europe again, this time in Denmark where he did fairly alright. When Morelia offered him to become the team's new leader, it was obvious what his next stop would be.
Unlike Rudiaz, Flores did not have an immediate impact on the team. Despite having Peruvian compatriots like Ray Sandoval on the team, it seemed that Flores had problems adapting to his new team and to the Mexican league. Flores wasn’t bad, but he wasn't exceptionally good either. He did have good games every now and then, but he was far from playing his projected role as the team's ace. And so, Morelia was once again a mediocre team. While doing well enough to avoid relegation battles, they were struggling to gain a playoff spot, something that was expected of the team during Ruidiaz's days.
Morelia started this season with the wrong foot forward, bad enough to send home coach Javier Torrente and replace him with the Argentinian Pablo Guede. Guede made several changes in Morelia, but among the more important ones was building the team's game strategy around Flores. It was a bingo. With more freedom and flexibility in choosing his position on the pitch , Flores became more influential within the team and is now able to demonstrate his qualities.
Unsurprisingly, Morelia became one of the more attractive teams to watch this year, and more importantly: The team managed to qualify for the playoffs, where they played against one of the best teams in the league - Club Leόn. The common opinion was that Morelia would end their season after the first playoff round, but along came Flores and with two goals in the first game and then a vital goal in the 2nd leg, carried his team to the semi-finals. His outstanding performance finally gained Flores the recognition he deserves.
Morelia is still the underdog this season, but who knows, maybe Flores could do the unimaginable and succeed where even Ruidiaz has failed, and bring a much-anticipated title to the Michoacán club.