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#2 Fernando Torres
From: Liverpool
To: Chelsea
Transfer fee: £52.65 million (€58.50 million)
The Rise
Torres was born on March 20, 1984 in Fuenlabrada, Spain. He joined his first team, Parque 84, as soon as he was 5. El Nino inherited his love for Atletico Madrid from his grandfather who was an avid supporter of Los Rojiblancos. By age 10 he scored 55 goals in a season that earned him the trial with Atletico Madrid. Torres impressed the selectors and was taken under the club's shade in 1995, kickstarting his footballing career.
The Spaniard rose through the youth ranks making constant impact on games despite suffering a few injuries such as a cracked shinbone which briefly kept him out of play. In 1998 Atletico won the under-15 Nike Cup and Torres was named the best player in Europe for his age bracket later that year for his performance in the tournament.
Torres made his first senior team appearance in 2001, in the season in which Atletico narrowly missed on promotion. Los Rojiblancos did secure a promotion in the subsequent season however, Torres wasn't much instrumental.
After a slow start to the senior career, the Spaniard caught pace instantly banging goals left, right and centre. After scoring 82 goals for Atletico in the league, El Nino made a switch to the Red side of Merseyside in 2007.
El Nino picked up things at Liverpool where he left at Madrid, scoring his first goal for The Reds on his home debut and scoring his first hattrick a little over a month later. At Liverpool Torres enjoyed the peak of his career. He had turned into a pacey, two-footed shot monster along with becoming the fan favourite.
Despite common misconceptions, Torres' form started deteriorating while he was still at Liverpool. His dodgy injury record meant he missed nearly half of The Reds game in his final two seasons. So when a mammoth fee of £52.65 million (€58.50 million) was proposed by Chelsea, it was hard to turn it down. But that being said, he was still a world-class striker when he left Anfield.
The Fall
Chelsea had been trying to get their hands on the speedy Spaniard since his Atletico days but finally acquired his services when after several bids getting rejected, The Reds accepted the British record fee of £52.65 million (€58.50 million), making him the 6th most expensive player at the time.
After joining the Blues in January, Torres' career took a nosedive as it took him 3 months since recruitment or an equivalent of 903 playing minutes to score his first goal for them which was also his only goal for Chelsea in his debut season.
In the following seasons, the Spaniard's frustration grew further as he struggled to retrieve his form accumulating several cards and few injuries and having the sight of goal rarely. Torres' strike rate dropped to under 1 goal in every 5 games, shocking!
The once hottest prospect in Europe also became a subject of mockery in an infamous event in a match against Manchester United where the Chelsea number 9 missed an open goal.
Torres was shipped to Milan in 2014 on a two-year-long deal but after a not so prolific season, he agreed to return to his boyhood club in Madrid on another loan deal.
Though not as explosive as he was in his prime, Torres did show glimpses of his talent occasionally for Los Rojiblancos making the move permanent. In 2018 El Nino left his boyhood club once again, to ply his trade in Japan this time, representing Sagan Tosu where he is still playing at the time of writing.
