Torres: An Intimate Portrait of the Kid Who Became King

difficult. The ball is the same. If it runs rapidly, it’s difficult to catch.’
    Thank you, Mr Robinson.

Chapter 18
Liverpool 4 West Ham 0
     
    5 March 2008
    It’s a nice gesture by the captain. After the final whistle, he walks up to the referee, asks him for the ball, goes across the field and offers it, as if it was a bunch of roses to Fernando Torres on the bench. El Niño accepts it from Stevie with a big smile. It’s the third ball that he’s taken from an English ground and his third hat-trick of the season. In six long years at Atlético he never scored three in one game. In England, it’s become a habit. The first time was on 25 September, in the Carling Cup against Reading at the Madejski Stadium. The second, on 23 February, in the league and the latest against the Hammers. Luckily – for West Ham – he hit the post in the 67th minute, otherwise it would have been 4. Not only is he exceeding his personal boundaries but also those of Liverpool. It’s the first time in 60 years that a player in the red strip has scored a hat-trick in two consecutive matches at Anfield. Never before had a single striker scored in seven consecutive home games – but it happened a short time later. And not since 2003 (Michael Owen) had a Liverpool player racked up more than twenty goals in a season.
    Talking of records, before he finishes the 2007–08 season, he will break several. But first a look in the rear-view mirror. In three months, from July to September, the striker from Spain has become important, very important – for everyone. Midfield organiser, Xabi Alonso, acknowledges it in a declaration to the club website: ‘Torres is demonstrating that he’s not afraid of the physical contact that exists here, with defenders who will try to bring him down. His rivals realise that Fernando isn’t afraid of them and that’s an extra motivation for him.’
    When the new acquisition is on the bench, as happened against Portsmouth, or when he’s seen warming up on the edge of the pitch, as on 22 September at home against Birmingham, the fans and the media get restless. Especially when, three days later in the Carling Cup against Reading, he nets three. They always want to see him in the starting line-up and make fun of Rafa Benítez’s rotation policy. Take the
Daily Mirror
headline for its analysis of the situation: ‘Why Mrs Benítez would be happy if Rafa even rotated her rotisserie’. A discussion that begins with an imaginary dialogue between Rafa and Montse at breakfast time on the usefulness of rotating the various electrical appliances to make toast. It’s worth another look:
    Rafa: Take the bread from the toaster, dear. Today we use the oven grill.
Montse: But the toaster’s quicker.
Rafa: If you say to me, the toaster is best, I say OK. But I have three machines for browning bread and I must use them all.
Montse: But it’ll make the kids late for school.
Rafa: We are a few weeks into the school year. If you want the toaster performing at a good level next June, then OK, you must rest it now.
Montse: Right. Oven it is. Can I use the toaster tomorrow?
Rafa: Who knows? I have to consider the George Foreman Grill also.
     
    The main target of this ribaldry defends himself to the hilt, maintaining that, for sure, ‘Fernando can play twenty or thirty matches on the trot without any problem. But if he was to do that, he wouldn’t be capable of playing at the same level for the remaining fifteen games during which we are fighting for trophies.’ The gaffer’s global perspective is understandable, the decision to be sparing with his new millionaire purchase, to protect him, to ensure that he is fresh for when the games get harder, but it turns out, in fact, that El Niño ruins all the plans. He is too important for the team, both in the league and in the Champions League.
    In early December, in spite of the injury, he’s already scored twelve goals in all competitions. And three of them are heavyweight ones in the Champions League. They also serve to give new vigour to a manager under pressure from criticism, a lot of bad results and his dispute with the club’s American bosses, Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Heavyweight goals that have helped the numerous protests in support of Rafa that are seen on the streets of Liverpool at the end of November – Reds fans with his image on posters saying ‘Keep Rafa’ and even ‘
No pasarán
’ (‘They shall not pass’ – a famous rallying-call from the