TORRES Story Part 1

The Fernando Torres Story: ‘Painful day when i gave up as a keeper’
Oct 10 2007

The Fernando Torres Story: Part 1 of 3 – The early years

by Nick Peet, Liverpool Echo

SEVENTEEN years ago, in the back street of a working class suburb of
Madrid, a six-year-old boy wiped the tears from his eyes, stared down
at his teeth strewn across the floor and vowed never to play in goal
again.

Like most younger siblings, his older brother had made him stand
between the posts during a kick-about in the street, but this one
painful save would change the little boy’s life for ever.

From that day forward he decided that life was much safer putting the
ball in the back of the net rather than picking it out.

Today, Fernando Jose Torres Sanz is one of the finest strikers on the
planet – a fully fledged Spanish international, playing for one of
the most successful club’s in world football.

Torres was born on March 20, 1984, to parents Flori and Jose, and
spent the early years of his life living in Fuenlabrada, a large
suburban town south of Madrid, with older brother Israel and sister
Mari Paz.

Like most European kids he started playing with footballs when still
in nappies.

His earliest memories are filled with long hot summers, kicking the
ball around with his father, and listening to stories of the great
players of the past through his grandfather.

His first real organised game was playing for Parque 84, competing in
a two-day indoor tournament at a local sports centre.

Then only five, the striker admits he remembers very little about it,
but from then on he was hooked on the beautiful game.

Torres continues the story: “It was from the age of around six that
football became really important, mainly thanks to a kid’s TV show in
Spain called ‘Oliver and Benji’.

“It was a cartoon series, but really good. The story was about a
group of lads who start by playing football for fun but end up as
professionals.

“After the show me and my brother would go out and play football.

“I liked to imagine I was a professional footballer like the kids in
the series.

“At first, I played in goal until one day I got a couple of teeth
knocked out by the ball and decided that my career between the sticks
was finished. It was a great save, though.”

The following summer he signed for a neighbourhood cafe team called
Mario’s Holland, and even though he was a couple of years younger
than the rest, he started to hit the back of the net regularly in
their indoor junior league.

“Those first seven years of my life, my family, my friends, football
and summer holidays were the I only things I needed to be happy,” he
admits.

Just after he turned eight the family moved to a house in Estorde, in
Galicia, and it was here that Torres first met his childhood
sweetheart, Olalla, and most of his current circle of closest friends.

Three of them are Juli, Elias and Oscar, who have their own fond
memories of Fernando as a kid.

Juli recalls: “I remember him with loads of freckles and pudding-bowl
cut blonde hair.”

Elias, who went to school with Torres, said: “He was very naughty and
very lucky. One day the teacher caught him copying and she said ‘It
doesn’t matter, but don’t do it again’. And all because of his pretty
face. The rest of the class complained because he got off, but
nothing happened.”

“He was always up to something but never got found out,” Oscar
agrees. “He was the worst of all of us, but he always came up
smelling of roses while the rest of us always got caught.”

With a girlfriend and best friends now in the bag, it was time for
his second love and, inspired by the stories of his grandfather,
Torres Jnr was about to become an Atletico Madrid fan for life.

He recalls: “I’ve got great memories of my childhood, but one in
particular is really important – chatting with my granddad about
Atleti.

“My granddad was a strange case in terms of football. The truth is
football hardly interested him, but he was passionate when it came to
Atleti.

“The image is still fresh in my mind of my granddad in front of me,
talking without stopping, trying to get across to me the importance
of being an Atletico de Madrid fan.

“And, as witness to those wonderful talks, I have a plate with his
name and the Atletico badge. That plate is the best trophy I’ve got.”

It was also around this period that, now old enough to appreciate his
surroundings, father Jose took his son to the Vicente Calderon
Stadium for the first time.

“I was just nine-years old when I first visited the Atletico Madrid
trophy room,” Torres recalls. “But I remember my dad didn’t want to
tell me where we were going.

“I don’t know which of us was more excited; him, dying to show me, or
me, waiting for the big surprise. When we got there you still
couldn’t say, because we both loved it.”

Little did he know then, however, that within 12 months he would take
his first steps in one day rewriting the club’s history.

Then aged 10, Torres joined his first 11-a-side team, Rayo 13.

In his debut season he scored 55 goals and, as one of the three best
players in the league, was rewarded with a trial at Atletico.

“On the day of the trial I was really excited,” he recalls. “I was
dying to get out on the pitch and taste the real world. And things
turned out just the way I’d hoped.”

The following season he joined the club’s Academy set-up, being
coached by Manolo Rangel, who would eventually assume the role of
Torres’ mentor.

“He showed intelligence, explosive pace and bravery,” Rangel would
later say. “He did not think football like a child would.”

The first chapter in his young life was over. The next, his teenage
years, would change Atletico Madrid history forever.

Part II should follow…..

Andy
Liverweb

~ by egha1260 on November 19, 2007.