Torres: An Intimate Portrait of the Kid Who Became King

winning, of making all those dreams they’ve had for so many years come true.’

Now, the future. Someone said he’s still got a lot more improving to do.
     
    SL: ‘I think sometimes we talk about improvement and we’re wrong. Sometimes we talk about improvement as if this player will get better and better and better. It’s not a question of getting better, it’s a question of repeating the same thing. For example, when Ryan Giggs started with Manchester United at eighteen years old – brilliant. When he was 25, people said, yes, he’s good, he’s OK. Why? Because when he was eighteen, they thought he would keep getting better. But he just carried on being the same. That was still brilliant but people expected too much. The expectation was more than the player could give.
    ‘Fernando Torres is 25. He’s in a team that’s been to a European Cup semi-final. He’s on course maybe to do it again. He’s in a team challenging for the league and he’s scored the most important goal in Spanish football history. In another ten years time, if he wins another European championship with Spain, or a World Cup, or a European Cup with Liverpool – that’s not really improving, it’s just repeating the same thing – then he will be a true great.
    ‘It’s not really that he’s going to get better, it’s that he has the attitude and the mentality to maintain what’s already a fantastically good level. It’s like Leo Messi. Everyone says he’s going to get better. No he’s not. But it doesn’t matter because he’s already absolutely brilliant.’
    GB: ‘He’s seven out of 10. On a psychological level, confidence helps him a lot. He controls the ball well but he has to improve because he won’t have that speed all his life. He must perfect his first touch and finishing. His future? Fernando won’t leave Liverpool until they’ve won a league title – he’s very aware that it’s fundamental for the fans. Then after that he’ll want another and a Champions League. At Liverpool, they like him a lot and he likes Liverpool a lot. He’s immersed himself in the club philosophy and the city. I lived in Liverpool for eight years and it’s a mesmerising city. Once you enter its atmosphere it makes you want to stay. It’s also true that Liverpool is not Atlético Madrid, the team of his life, but we’ll see. Now, in England, Torres has very clear objectives.’

Chapter 16
Liverpool 1 Chelsea 1
     
    19 August 2007
    Sixteen minutes to become a hero. Steven Gerrard, in the midfield circle, looks up. To his left, he sees Fernando, ready to pounce. A long diagonal pass with the outside of the foot. Perfect, as on so many previous occasions. On the move, Torres is unstoppable, his counter-attacking is lethal but he has to prove it at Anfield, his new home. He gets to the ball without difficulty, even though it was a bit long. He moves onto it with speed, then holds it up briefly on the white line of the opposing penalty area, strokes it with his right foot and takes on the Chelsea defender, Tal Ben Haim. In a flash, a change of pace and he’s off. Petr Cech tries to close down the space but can’t do anything, his white-gloved hand touches only grass. El Niño’s shot is aimed just inside the opposite post. Precise, surgical and exact, like a mathematical formula. For the ex-Atlético Madrid player, it just remains for him to turn and slide along the turf, arms open wide, to offer himself to the terraces, for them to embrace what he has kept on doing since the first minute, to receive his deserved tribute.
    It’s not only a goal, it’s love at first sight between the young lad from Fuenlabrada and the residents of the Kop. Now they’ve found their very own
matador
, the clinical finisher they were looking for. In just a few seconds, Torres has demonstrated his qualities – speed, power, precision and class finishing in front of goal. No, he’s not the dud signing that some were afraid he might be. No, he’s not the other Fernando (Morientes) who arrived from ‘sunny Spain’ generating huge expectations and then didn’t perform as he should have done. Right from the first moment, this Number 9 seems something else altogether.
    The plaudits from the press flood in. So it’s a pity then that the match ends in a draw after conceding a penalty that the 45,000 present would swear they hadn’t seen. But it doesn’t matter. For the new arrival it’s a great day. He couldn’t imagine a better debut –