Torres: An Intimate Portrait of the Kid Who Became King

and Reyes, together with very experienced players like Raúl, Baraja and Albelda. But in the end, my plans didn’t work.’ And Iñaki’s adventure ended.
    On 1 July 2004, the Real Federación Española de Fútbol (Royal Spanish Football Federation) named 66-year-old Luis Aragonés as the new manager, with 30 years’ experience across Spain and an old acquaintance of Fernando Torres. His debut is set for 18 August in Las Palmas in a friendly against Venezuela, ahead of qualification for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Fernando is there. He will be a fixture in the call-ups of the Aragonés era. He will be left out only once, for a friendly in Tenerife on 10 November 2006, against Romania, because of the Atlético captain’s poor league form with only two goals in eight games – his worst results since playing in the first division. Aragonés maintains that there are four strikers who are in better form than El Niño. He says he’s leaving him at home ‘so that he learns’. The match ends in a defeat for Spain. From that moment on, apart from when circumstances are beyond his control, the manager will not leave Fernando out of the side and Spain will not lose again with him on the side. At the beginning, however, things aren’t easy between Torres and Aragonés. The Atlético Number 9 is always the first to be substituted. Something that doesn’t make him at all happy. On 7 September 2005, Spain play Serbia in a qualifying game for the Germany World Cup in Atlético’s Vicente Calderón stadium. Torres comes onto the pitch in the starting line-up because Fernando Morientes – then a player at Liverpool – is injured. For El Niño to play in his home stadium in the national side is something very special. A big moment in his career.
    But in the 56th minute, he’s substituted. On in his place goes Tamudo. In the papers the following day, he reads that he’s played without composure, not knowing how to use his skills, speed or strength. In other words, that in the national side he’s not able to establish himself, to prove his worth or demonstrate his gifts. The encounter ends in a draw. The qualification process is getting bogged down. They need to win against Belgium. And it’s typical that Aragonés puts him to the test in a difficult match like the one in the Heysel stadium in Brussels on 10 October 2005. He listens to El Niño’s complaints about his repeated substitutions and takes a gamble on him. He puts him on the pitch in a complicated match. And it’s there that he finally gets a big thorn out of his side. Two superb passes from José Antonio Reyes (then a player with Arsenal and a former team-mate of Torres from the junior national sides) and two goals that re-energise the team’s drive for qualification. The first, in the 56th minute, is a wonderful strike. Reyes sends a long ball upfield, Torres gets behind the Belgian defence and takes off to thump the ball exactly in the space between the opposite post and crossbar.
    Finally, El Niño does what everyone expects of a centre forward – finally he silences the doubts that his play was generating.
    Spain qualify through the play-offs, without too many worries, beating Slovakia 5-1 in the first leg (including a penalty from Torres) and a one-all draw in the second to put them into the World Cup.
    ‘I’ve dreamed loads of times about being in the World Cup,’ says Fernando, adding with a smile, ‘I want to be in the final and be champion of the world.’ It won’t be like that. Let’s see what really happens …
    In Leipzig’s Zentralstadion on 14 June, 2006, the first match in Group H. Spain 4 Ukraine 1 – a victory, a perfect game and an 81st minute goal for Fernando is the icing on the cake. A move that starts with Puyol, the Barcelona defender getting free of the Ukrainian defence by making a
Rocastle Manoeuvre
(named after former Arsenal player David Rocastle) or
Marseille Turn
(after the version of the move used by French player, Zinedine Zidane), involving a 360-degree spin or turn with the ball, while on the move. He gives the ball to Arsenal midfielder, Cesc, who looks around and returns it to the sender, who heads it on and into the path of the Number 9. A great strike taken in mid-air and the Spanish media brand it goal of the tournament. Overcoming the team of Andriy Shevchenko (the 2004 European Footballer of the Year and Chelsea’s then new signing) in such fashion sparks World Cup fever in Spain. The road to the final