Fernando Morientes has added to the recent speculation about his future by saying that he would be prepared to leave Real Madrid, with Monaco his first choice.

By Alex Hough

The Spanish international forward maintained that there possibility of leaving the Madrid club “still existed” if he continued to play a bit part in his club’s “happy and sad times.”

In an interview with L’Equipe, Morientes said: “Everyone knows that I love Real and that I want to be here for a long time. But if I left again, Monaco would be my first choice.”

The striker spent a successful year on loan with the side from the principality, and helped them overcome Real in the quarter finals of the Champions League.

“I felt that with Didier Deschamps, something good could happen,” Morientes added. “The magic worked. Since then I know that there’s an open door for me at Monaco. I would like to go through it again some day.”

“I want to play, something that I haven’t done for quite some time. I need to play, but in Madrid I haven’t been used. It’s a situacion that worries me.”

Another concern for Morientes has been the return to form in the recent international matches of Micheal Owen.

“It seems as though (Real President) Perez speaks a lot of Owen,” he added. “It’s normal. He is the transfer that the president decided upon this year. In the summer I spoke to Camacho, and he told me that there were three forwards competing for two places. But the arrival of another forward has made things different.”

“I stayed because the arrival of Camacho gave me confidence.”