Como 1907 have sent Álvaro Morata to CD Leganés on loan for the whole of the 2026/27 season, with an option to buy in favour of the Spanish club. The two official statements came out on the same day, 28 August 2026, and use almost identical words: a temporary transfer until the end of the season, with an option. The point is not the return to Spain of a European champion captain. It is that the return goes through the second division, and that Como had bought Morata permanently only about two months earlier.
The deal in brief
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Player | Álvaro Borja Morata Martín, 33 |
| Position | Centre-forward |
| From | Como 1907 |
| To | CD Leganés (LALIGA Hypermotion, second division) |
| Terms | Loan with an option to buy |
| Expiry | 30 June 2027 |
| Figures stated by the clubs | None |
| Shirt | 21 |
The number that explains everything is zero
That is the goals Morata scored in Serie A in the 2025/26 season: zero in 26 appearances, nine of them as a starter, with one league assist according to Marca’s count. His only goal of the season came in the Coppa Italia against Fiorentina, across 30 games in all. In between, a high-grade injury to the long adductor of his left thigh, announced by Como on 11 December 2025, and a sending off for two bookings late in the game, against the Viola themselves, on 14 February 2026.
He is not a player running down his contract to be let go: his deal with Como, according to public transfer archives, runs until 30 June 2029. The consequence has been seen with the national team too, where Morata has not been called up since September 2025 and was left out of the World Cup Spain won on 19 July 2026. At his presentation he used a phrase that weighs more than a statistic: “me tocó estar fuera en el momento más bonito”, I had to be out at the most beautiful moment.
The terms say option, not obligation
Leganés write of “una opción de compra al término de la misma”, Como of “a temporary transfer until the end of the season, with an option”. Neither text uses the word obligation, and neither contains a single amount: not for the loan, not for the buy option, not for the salary. In ten months’ time the decision will rest entirely with the Spanish club.
The context makes the choice more interesting than usual. Como had taken Morata on loan from Milan in August 2025, on what the official Milan statement calls a move “on loan, with an obligation to make the move permanent should certain conditions be met”, and the permanent transfer came through between the middle of June and the start of July 2026, depending on the source: press reconstructions based on Milan’s accounts value the whole deal, paid loan plus buy-out, at around 12 million euros, a figure never confirmed by the two Italian clubs. Less than three months later the same player is in the Segunda División, and his registration stays in Lombardy.
The obstacle was not the fee, it was the salary
Here the figures exist only as press reconstructions. Legal Sport write that at Como Morata was earning a salary “cercana a los cuatro millones de euros anuales” and that the Italian club would keep covering the larger part of it during the loan. Marca describe the same arrangement: Como would take on a significant share of the salary, Morata would give up a portion, the rest would be the effort made by Leganés. No percentage has been published, and Legal Sport itself warns that an official figure for the Spanish salary does not exist.
Why the split is needed is explained by the way Spanish football works. LaLiga assigns each club a Límite de Coste de Plantilla Deportiva, a squad spending cap calculated club by club. The last published document covers the 2025-26 season and gives Leganés 19.773 million euros in the March 2026 reading, up from the 14.773 million of September 2025, out of a total of 220.385 million for the division: the document lists twenty-two clubs, but Real Sociedad B has no figure of its own because it is aggregated with the first team’s. The 2026-27 figure does not exist yet. On those orders of magnitude a salary close to 4 million would absorb an enormous share of the wage bill, while split three ways it weighs far less. Marca maintain in any case that the room was there and that the club worked “para cuadrarlo dentro de los límites que marcara la LaLiga”.
A European Championship captain in the second division
Leganés have been in the Segunda since 2025-26, a season they finished 16th with 46 points and six to spare on relegation. This year they have started better than anyone: top with 7 points from 3 matchdays, a single goal conceded, coached by Rubén Albés. The day after the signing they beat CD Eldense 1-0 with a goal from Miguel Atienza in the 89th minute, in front of more than 10,000 spectators at the Ontime Butarque, with Morata not among the starters or the substitutes in the club’s official match report.
The player has 87 caps and 37 goals for Spain, fourth top scorer of all time according to the club’s statement, and lifted the 2024 European Championship as captain. The technical reason for the departure came from him: “Tuve una conversación con mi entrenador y amigo y no iba a ser importante para su proyecto”, where the coach in question is Cesc Fàbregas. And on the division: “Segunda División a veces es más exigente que Primera”.
What Como get out of it
They take off the wage bill the share that passes to Leganés and to the player, they free a place in a squad that after fourth place in Serie A is playing the first Champions League in the club’s history, they keep Morata under contract until 2029 and they hold on to a future fee should the option be exercised. None of these items appears in a statement: it is the accounting substance of a loan with an option, not a declared agreement.
What to watch now
Two things, and neither concerns the figures. The first is the option: with no known price, the only indicator will be how Leganés behave in the spring, when promotion is won or lost. Morata, asked directly, replied “Me gustaría mucho seguir aquí”.
The second is the goal, which is what was missing in Italy. At his presentation he said that at the end of the season he would like to be told “que he quedado Pichichi y que hemos ascendido”: top scorer and promotion. A striker who went a whole first-division season without scoring is measured against that double target.
Sources: official statements of CD Leganés and Como 1907 of 28 August 2026, the official presentation and the Spanish club’s match report, the official LaLiga Hypermotion table, the LaLiga document on squad cost limits, encyclopaedic entries and public statistical archives, Marca and Legal Sport. No figure for the deal appears in the club statements: the amounts cited are journalistic reconstructions.
Frequently asked questions
On what terms did Álvaro Morata join Leganés?
A one-season loan with an option to buy in favour of the Spanish club. That is what the official statements of CD Leganés and Como 1907 say, both published on 28 August 2026: they speak of a transfer until the end of the 2026/27 season, while the 30 June 2027 expiry is recorded by public transfer archives. Neither of the two mentions an obligation to buy.
How much does the deal cost Leganés?
The two clubs have not stated any amount: neither a loan fee, nor a price for the option, nor a salary. According to Legal Sport, at Como Morata was earning a salary close to 4 million euros a year and the Italian club would continue to cover the larger part of it. Marca adds that the player would give up a share and that the rest would fall to Leganés. These are press reconstructions, not contractual data: Legal Sport itself makes clear that no official figure on the Spanish salary has been made public.
What division do Leganés play in for 2026/27?
In the Spanish Segunda División, known as LALIGA Hypermotion: the second tier, a single group of 22 clubs and 42 matchdays, with direct promotion for the top two and a play-off from third to sixth. At the time of the signing Leganés had 4 points from 2 matchdays, the draw at Girona on 16 August and the win at Oviedo on 22 August: they went up to 7 points from 3 matchdays the day after, beating Eldense 1-0.
How many goals did Morata score for Como?
Just one in the whole 2025/26 season, in the Coppa Italia against Fiorentina, across 30 games in all. In Serie A he finished on zero in 26 appearances, nine of them as a starter, with one league assist according to Marca.
What shirt number does Morata wear at Leganés?
The 21, given in the club's official statement and confirmed by the player page on the Leganés website. At his presentation Morata explained that he chose it by asking his children which number they preferred.
