Torres: An Intimate Portrait of the Kid Who Became King

Sport
: ‘The lethal weapon is always the same: Fernando Torres. Simply wonderful, El Niño surprises and wipes out the opposition with an undeniable show of class and power. After Madrid he also humiliates Manchester. The panel of the Golden Ball should be alert to this.’ Nothing more to say. Steve Gerrard, though, does chime in with something: ‘Liverpool can win the Premier League. If we carry on like this from now on, we’ve got a chance to walk away with the title, and Fernando Torres is the key to doing it.’
    It wouldn’t be the first time. March 1998 – United has an eleven-point lead over Blackburn and twelve over Arsenal and Liverpool. It seems they’ve got the League title in the bag. Final standings: Arsenal 78, Manchester United 77. The Gunners win ten games on the trot and crown themselves champions with two games in hand. This time there are nine games to go, but it seems there’s a chance. Even more so when, a week on, United lose to Fulham. Two defeats in a row – something that hasn’t happened since 2005. At Liverpool, who have just given Aston Villa a 5-0 thrashing, they are convinced the Red Devils are feeling the heat. But after their two routs, Ferguson’s men hit the accelerator and don’t let up right to the end.
    On Saturday, 16 May, United win their third League in a row, their 18th. They draw level with Liverpool in number of trophies won and leave the Merseyside team with a bad taste in their mouths. They’ve lost fewer times than the Red Devils (two versus four times), have netted more goals (72 versus 67), but in the end they are second in the overall standings, and four points adrift of the champions. Their high draw-rate has cost them dear. It is nineteen years since the Reds have lifted the league trophy. Another season over without silverware. In the Champions League Liverpool came up against Chelsea in the semis, in a duel that, in England over the last few years, has become as much a custom as tea or rain. They were eliminated in a night to remember, an eight-goal thriller – an unbelievable game, as the English press wrote, following the 4-4
dénouement
at Stamford Bridge. They praised the pluck and pride of the Reds, one step away from changing history, one step away from turning round a 1-3 result from the home match, one step away from winning the mother of all battles, as the
Guardian
wrote. But in the end the Champions’ dream faded away.
    Fernando has scored two goals in Europe’s team championship. In the league he has netted fourteen goals, five less than top-scorer Nicolas Anelka of Chelsea. Whenever on the pitch he has been decisive. It’s just a shame that bad luck hasn’t given him a better strike-rate. This is something Gerrard also sees as an unhappy circumstance: ‘The frustrating thing for both of us is that we haven’t been together more times on the pitch this season.’ It’s true. The awesome partnership (28 goals) has only been together on the pitch for twelve out of 36 Premier matches. ‘Let’s hope,’ says Stevie G. on the club’s official web-site, ‘that next season we are ready to give Liverpool the best chance of success. We both feel that if we are both clicking, we can cause defences loads of problems. We both enjoy playing with each other and we can both either score goals or set them up for each other.’ Fernando is also hopeful about next season: ‘Winning the Premier League will be our big objective again. We will fight for the title again by looking to win at home more regularly against the teams that are more winnable in theory. As we have seen this season, they choked us. I reckon Manchester United and Chelsea will be our main rivals, though we can’t rule out Arsenal either, or Manchester City. I hope that this year we will achieve what all the fans expect from us’.

Chapter 31
You’d be happy if your daughter brought him home
     
    Conversation with former Liverpool player and manager, Graeme Souness
    He’s hardly arrived in the United States before he’s already on his way to Rome. The ex-Liverpool captain is going back to the Eternal City, where, on 30 May 1984, he held aloft Liverpool’s fourth European Cup. The final trophy of an impressive season, which also saw them win the league championship and the League Cup and the first under manager, Joe Fagan, who had replaced Bob Paisley.
    Souness, the Number 11 in the red shirt, remembers that final well. The Roma side of Bruno Conti, Paulo Roberto Falcao,