"El Nino" Fernando Torres turns 37

 

Torres with Atletico in 2017-18

Today we would like to send out our best wishes to "El Nino" of football, Fernando Torres a Happy 37th Birthday. Born in Fuenlabrada,Spain in 1984 Torres would spend 24 years playing football, starting his youth career in 1995 with Atletico Madrid and retiring in 2019 at Japanese Club Sagan Tosu.

People who watched him play will say he was one of a kind. After progressing through the ranks at Atletico Madrid, he would spend 6 years with them at senior level before moving to Liverpool in 2007.

He spend 4 years at Anfield. In his first season at Liverpool, he scored 24 league goals in the Premier League finishing second with Emmanuel Adebayor in the golden boat race. Due to that performance he was a part of the Spain squad for the Euro 2008 which they won. In the 2009 he would become the fastest Liverpool player to score 50 goals after netting against Spurs on the final day of the season.

In 2010, Spain lifted the FIFA World Cup in what was a below par performance according to Torres Standard. He was mostly used a sub in the tournament.

After years of rumours linking him to Chelsea, Torres officially swapped Anfield to Stamford Bridge after he was signed by Chelsea on the deadline day of January transfer window for a reported fee of £50 million which set a new then record of a British transfer.

Though he was not that successful as he would have hoped for Chelsea, Torres will forever remain in the hearts of Chelsea Blues. His most important goal for the club was arguably in the semi final against Barcelona in 2011-12 season.

After winning the first leg 1-0, Chelsea travelled to Barcelona to avenge the 2009 defeat against the Catalonian Club in which many Blues faithful described that they were "robbed" by the referee.

Torres came on as a substitute to replace Didier Drogba. In the last minute of the game, Torres would run the entire length of the field, as Barcelona tried to score. In his run, he rounded of keeper Victor Valdes, before slotting the ball in to make it 2-2 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate to Chelsea. They were already leading on away goals, but Torres's goal ensured them of a place in the final. And Guess what? Chelsea won the final against Bayern Munich after a penalty shootout.

After Fours years at Chelsea and a brief stint at AC Milan, Torres returned to his boyhood club Atletico Madrid where he played 2 seasons and later hanged up his boots in 2019 at Sagan Tosu.

Some Major Hounours he won-

• UEFA Euros- 2008,2012
• FIFA World Cup- 2010
• FA Cup- 2011-12
• UEFA Champions League- 2011-12
• UEFA Europa League- 2012-13,2017-18