Fernando Torres

Fernando Torres is a Spanish professional football player who plays as a striker for the Japanese club Sagan Tosu and for the Spain national team. He was born on 20 March 1984 in Fuenlabrada, Spain.

Torres has been capped over 100 times and is Spain’s third-highest goalscorer of all-time. He has been described as having “an eye for the spectacular” and is regarded as a technically proficient, highly successful striker. Several injuries have led to a loss of form, pace, confidence and a decreased goal scoring rate in recent times.

Background

At the age of five, Torres became interested in football and joined his first team, Parque 84. He began playing football as a goalkeeper and after two years started playing regularly as a striker.

In 1995, he began his youth career with Atlético Madrid. He progressed through the ranks and won his first youth title in 1998. Atlético Madrid sent an under-15 team to compete in the Nike Cup. Atlético won the tournament and Torres was voted as the best player in Europe for that age group. He made his debut for the senior Atlético Madrid team on 27 May 2001 against Leganes at the Vicente Calderón Stadium.

Debut

Before playing for the senior team, Torres had represented Spain at Under-15, Under-16, Under-17, Under-18, Under-19 and Under-21 level.

Torres made his international debut for Spain on 6 September 2003 in a friendly match against Portugal. His first international goal came against Italy on 28 April 2004. He has made 110 appearances for Spain and has scored 38 goals so far.

Torres won his 100th cap for Spain against Saudi Arabia on 7 September 2012, making him the sixth-highest capped player for Spain. He became the first person in history to score four goals in one game in a FIFA Confederations Cup match against Tahiti in a 10-0 victory in the 2013 Confederations Cup.

Rise to glory

Torrens scored seven goals in 11 appearances in qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, making him Spain’s top scorer for qualification, including his first international hat-trick which came against San Marino.

Torres scored the match winning goal against Germany in the final of Euro 2008 and was named the man of the match. For his impressive performance in the tournament , he featured as a striker in the Team of the Tournament.

In the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, he scored his second hat-trick for Spain. He scored the hat-trick after just 17 minutes from the start of play, thus recording the fastest hat-trick by a Spanish footballer.

Torres was awarded the Golden Boot in the 2012 UEFA European Championship for being the highest goalscorer of the tournament. Torres had scored three goals and made one assist.

Club Career

After progressing through the youth ranks, Torres made it to the senior Atlético Madrid team and played for six seasons from 2001 to 2007 before moving to Liverpool for a transfer fee of about £20 million.

Torres made his debut for Liverpool on 11 August 2007 against Aston Villa in a 2-1 victory. He became the first Liverpool player since Jack Balmer in November 1946 to score a hat-trick in two successive home matches. He was a star player for Liverpool as he scored 65 goals in 102 appearances for the club.

Torres moved to Chelsea on a five-and-a-half-year contract on 31 January 2011 for a transfer fee reported to be £50 million, which set a new record for a British transfer and made him the sixth most expensive footballer in history. He made his Chelsea debut on 6 February 2011 in a 1-0 home defeat against his former club Liverpool. He made 110 appearances for Chelsea and netted 20 times.

On 31 August 2014, Torres moved to Italian Serie A club Milan on a two-year loan. He debuted on 20 September 2014 and scored his first and only goal for Milan two days after his debut.

Torres agreed to rejoin Atlético Madrid on loan until the end of the 2015-16 season. On 6 February 2016, he scored his 100th goal for Atlético Madrid in a 3-1 win against Eibar on his 295th appearance for the club.

On 5 July 2016, Torres signed for Atlético Madrid permanently on a one-year contract.