Torres: An Intimate Portrait of the Kid Who Became King

each other well. They haven’t even had time to train together. So, in-between matches, he gives them sessions with the ball and while walking round the hotel grounds, tries to explain how they should position themselves on the pitch.
    During one of these sessions, he realises that ‘one of them, I think it was Fernando, had kicked a stone and unfortunately it broke a window in someone’s house. The owner came out shouting and protesting, with us not being able to understand what he was saying. We went through some difficult moments before someone from the organisation came and sorted things out.’ A stone that stayed in the memories of the coach and the youngsters. And it may actually have helped to unite the team because, in spite of the improvisation, they finish in sixth place. ‘Fernando stood out quite well and there were a lot of positive comments about him,’ adds Rangel.
    It was then 1995–96, the first season in the red-and-white shirt. An important season for the club, which won a league and cup (Copa del Rey) double for the first time in its history. It broke the dominance of Real Madrid and Barcelona. A success for the team managed by Radomir Antic, whose leading players included Kiko, Pantic, Caminero and Simeone. A double that reinforced the emotional ties between Torres and Atléti. And the pride of wearing the shirt of the Spanish champions.
    Fernando was doing his part in the junior divisions. He gets 67 goals and is top-scorer, the sporting leader of the team and the focal point of the group. His skills are showcased in the
Torneo de Brunete
(the Brunete Tournament), a competition in which about twenty junior teams from clubs in the Spanish first division take part and where many young Spanish champions make their early mark. The youngster is fascinated by the atmosphere, the terraces at the Estadio Los Arcos, the television cameras filming the matches, the fans and the watchful eye of the observers and trainers at the games. He scores a succession of quick-fire goals, one after the other, and runs to tell his grandfather.
    The following year, the shots of him used by regional television channel,
Telemadrid
, always show him at Brunete on the pitch against Milan, tall and thin, with his blond bob haircut and the Number 9 on his back. Fernando puts away penalties that the keeper can’t get hold of, dribbles past opponents even with a backheel and scores to make it 3-0 and then 4-0 in a perfect counter-attacking move going round the onrushing keeper.
    ‘Fernando was a born winner. He also wanted to win in training. I was 39, I had to quit playing football but I was in good enough condition to run with them,’ remembers Rangel, ‘I enjoyed making bets with him regarding a game, penalties, or who would score the most goals from a free-kick. And Fernando was really competitive. At the end of training, he would be waiting with his sports bag to inform me, ‘Coach, you owe me a Coca-Cola for what I’ve won from you.’ He was very bright, very smart.’
    And Rangel is keen to stress, like Briñas, the importance of grandfather Torres Sanz: ‘A fantastic family, very close and well-balanced, which helped him enormously to be a footballer.’ His parents, José and Flori, his brother Israel and Mari Paz, his sister, help him in every way. On many occasions, his father has to get permission from work to take him from Fuenlabrada to Orcasitas, where he trains. His mother waits for him in front of the school gates in the wind and the rain, goes with him on the bus or on the train to the ground, and waits for the training to end to bring him back home. And without ever insisting or demanding that he become a professional. On the contrary, she tells him many times that ‘if you are tired or you don’t want to play, tell me and we won’t go again’. His brother and sister also assume their responsibilities for the 15-kilometre (about 10 miles) daily trip. They have to study and do their homework sitting on the terraces at the ground. Years divided between school and training, with matches at the weekend. The best thing is when Fernando joins Atlético’s residential Colegio Amanecer school, just outside the centre of Madrid where, today, around 30 youngsters between the ages of fifteen and eighteen study up to the Spanish equivalent of A-levels. ‘Fernando was a student who knew how to combine books with the ball,’ recalls school coordinator Rafael Bravo. ‘His parents wrote us a very