Profile on Fernando Torres

DOB – 20 March 1984

Place of birth/Nationality – Fuenlabrada, Spain

Position/Squad Number – Striker / 9

Family/Early Days

Born in Fuenlabrada, Community of Madrid, Torres became interested in football as a child and joined his first team, Parque 84, at the age of five. His father José Torres worked during Torres’ childhood, and his mother Flori Sanz traveled daily with him to training sessions. His grandfather was not a passionate football fan, but took pride in being an Atlético Madrid supporter, and Torres inherited his love for the club.Torres started playing football as a goalkeeper, the position his brother played in. When he was seven years old, however, he started playing regularly as a striker in an indoor league for the neighborhood club, Mario’s Holland, using the characters from the anime Captain Tsubasa as inspiration. Three years later, aged 10, he progressed to an 11-side team, Rayo 13. He scored 55 goals in a season and was one of three Rayo 13 players to earn a trial with Atlético. He impressed the scouts and joined the club’s youth system at the age of 11 in 1995. Torres’ parents are José and Flori, and he has two older siblings, Israel (born 1977) and Maria Paz (born 1976). He married Olalla Domínguez Liste, with whom he had been in a relationship since 2001, on 27 May 2009 in a private ceremony with just two guests at the local town hall in El Escorial, Madrid. They had been an item for eight years and are thought to have met in the Galician seaside town of Estorde, where Torres would go on family holidays each year to escape the Spanish capital. The couple have two children, a daughter, Nora, born on 8 July 2009 at the Hospital La Rosaleda, in Santiago de Compostela, and a son, born on 6 December 2010 at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, with Torres missing the fixture against Aston Villa at Anfield.In 2009, it was reported that Torres has a personal fortune of £14 million. He features in the video for “Ya Nada Volverá A Ser Como Antes” by Spanish pop rock group El Canto del Loco, whose singer, Dani Martín, shares a strong friendship with the footballer. He makes a cameo appearance in the 2005 comedy film Torrente 3: El protector. In 2009, he released an autobiography entitled Torres: El Niño: My Story.

Chelsea Career

On moving to Stamford Bridge, Torres became the first striker to wear the number 9 jersey since Hernan Crespo in the 2005/06 season, but took 14 games before he found the net, a joyously received effort on a sodden Stamford Bridge pitch against West Ham.It remained his only goal for the Blues that season but with a rare summer of recuperation following, hopes are high that 2011/12 will see the Fernando Torres that tormented Chelsea so much when he was wearing red.Form in the new campaign has been encouraging, an opening day display at Stoke lacked only a goal, which came at Old Trafford in a 3-1 defeat against Manchester United, but his afternoon will be remembered not for the instinctive flick over David De Gea’s head but the missed open goal that followed in the closing stages.The Spaniard bounced back quickly to open the scoring against Swansea with a smart touch and finish though, and each game Fernando looks more and more dangerous.

Awards/Key Moments

■ Nike Cup top scorer (1): 1999

■ Algarve Tournament Player of the Tournament (1): 2001

■ Algarve Tournament top scorer (1): 2001

■ UEFA European Under-16 Football Championship Player of the Tournament (1): 2001

■ UEFA European Under-16 Football Championship top scorer (1): 2001

■ EFA European Under-19 Football Championship Player of the Tournament (1): 2002

■ EFA European Under-19 Football Championship top scorer (1): 2002

■ EFA European Football Championship Team of the Tournament (1): 2008

■ FIFPro World XI (2): 2008, 2009

■ PFA Team of the Year (2): 2007–08, 2008–09

■ Premier League Player of the Month (2): February 2008, September 2009

Previous Clubs

2001 – 2007 Atletico Madrid

2007 – 2011 Liverpool

2011 – Current Chelsea

International Career

He headed to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010 already a winner of the European Championships at senior international level.In his teenage years, Fernando had achieved top-scorer status for his country in both the Under 16 and Under 19 European Championships and he scored his first goal for the senior side against Italy aged 20, seven months after his first cap.In the 2006 World Cup in Germany he scored three times in the group stage but Spain were beaten by France in the first knockout round. However there was no stopping his nation two years later at Euro 2008, Fernando scoring once on the way to the final and the only goal in that match in Vienna as Germany were defeated. It was Spain’s first major piece of silverware since 1964.In South Africa, Fernando struggled for full fitness and form having undergone surgery in April. As a result, Barcelona’s Pedro took his place for a semi-final triumph over Germany.Coach Vicente Del Bosque also left him out of the starting line-up for the final. Instead he came on in extra-time in the 1-0 win over Holland although he tore a muscle before the end.No longer an automatic starter, he remains an important squad member for the Spanish, who comfortably tied up their place in next summer’s European Championships, to be played in Ukraine and Poland.

Quotes from Player

“I’m hoping now I can find my best form again. It’s been a different style here for me to adapt to and I’ve been giving assists for my team-mates, which has helped us towards winning games.” – January 2012

“As a striker I’m always trying to score and I always want to score … I’m hoping now I can find my best form again.” – January 2012

“Whenever I have had difficult times, I look at myself and say, ‘Yes, I can get back to my level.’ All that I need to do, above anything else, is to work” – November 2011

“I am in debt to the Chelsea fans. They have always supported me … And I promise them the one thing I have never done and will never do in my life is give up.” – November 2011

What the fans say…

@misslauraRT

“Emotional, hard-working, unlucky, hard-done-by, under-dog.”

@JM61189

“All he needs is service!”

@ZoyaSami

“Chelsea’s lean mean scoring machine”

@Mumtaaaz

“Irresistible, Mobile, Sportive, Zestful, Eyelicious”

By Clare Smith

Twitter @chelsea4girls