Torres: An Intimate Portrait of the Kid Who Became King

had just won the European Under-16 Championship and he didn’t want to miss the Cup final against Osasuna. We lost 1-0. In any case, it was another example of the desire he had to be on the pitch and to help his team-mates win another title. He was the player everyone looked up to. He had charm and he made the difference.’

Talking of that, how did he get on with his team-mates?
     
    ‘Very well. Even though some of them were two or three years older than him, he was always competing at a higher age level. I remember a team dinner after winning the league. They were all grown-up by then and everyone wanted to go out on the town. I smiled to myself at Fernando, the youngest of them and his refusal to let himself be led astray. He was very responsible and knew how to behave – both at a party like that and in the dressing room. He didn’t put on any airs. He was always talking about the team and encouraging the others. He was very humble but at the same time very mature for his age. He would listen when you explained something to him or commented on something he was doing wrong that he should improve.’

He didn’t want to put on any airs but he was captain of Atlético at just eighteen years of age …
     
    That’s true. But you have to remember when he joined the first team. He came on the scene at a time when the team wasn’t doing well. He was a lad who came from the junior Spanish national side, which had won the Under-19 European Championship, who brought a breath of fresh air to the squad and who, in a few years, had transformed himself into the public face of the club.’

With all the criticism that brought with it …
     
    ‘They criticised him for the results, for the missed goals, for the side’s bad run but also for his technique – his poor left leg, his lack of control and inability to lose his marker.’

And what does his former coach say now? Has he improved?
     
    ‘Now he plays much better off the ball, he knows how to lose his marker and when he gets going, he’s unstoppable. He’s a modern striker in the true meaning of the word. He’s complete, fast, can apply pressure and is a good finisher. He can use both his legs and his head. He doesn’t have the class of Van Basten, the technique of Ronaldo, or the elegance of Ibrahimovic, nor is he unbalanced like Messi, but he scores a lot of goals – and really good ones too. He works for the team and has a drive to be the best, which takes him where he has to be. He knew how to overcome his limitations using character and nerve.’

And the human side? Has that changed?
     
    ‘No. He’s still the lad I knew here in Atlético. Last year, I met him in Liverpool, where I’d gone to see Rafa Benítez, and he was as warm and generous as he he’d always been. There was none of the ‘I’m a star’ who’s forgotten his friends or a junior trainer like me.’

Chapter 9
The Torres generation
     
    ‘Vamos a quemar el pueblo.’ (‘We’re going to paint the town red.’) Wrapped in the Spanish flag, a seventeen-year-old youth is threatening to disturb the peace of Sunderland’s 177,000 inhabitants. And team-mates, parents and Spanish fans are ready to join him. The youngster has just won the Under-16 European Championship, he is on a high and wants to party. It is the afternoon of 6 May 2001, and Fernando Torres is leaving the main gate at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light, where Spain has beaten France in the final. There are celebrations everywhere, on the pitch, in the stands and in the dressing room. The youngsters are in a daze as they pass round the cup presented to them by UEFA President Lennart Johansson. They aren’t sure what to do. One of them runs wildly round the pitch with a pirate-style headband, another uses the Spanish flag as a kind of cape in front of an imaginary bull, while several others leap over the edge of the pitch in tears to embrace mothers and fathers who have come for the occasion. Training staff, players, parents and friends join together to form a giant human fir cone. They all shout:
‘
Campeones!!! Campeones!!!’ (‘Champions!!! Champions!!!’) over and over again until they’re hoarse. Torres the goalscorer, still can’t take in the fact that it is all really happening. He shouts: ‘We are the champions!’
    It’s his first trophy with the national team, an adventure that began on 5 April 2000, in Badajoz (south-west Spain), when he wore the shirt of the Spanish Under-15 side. It was a