Fernando Torres

Fernando José Torres Sanz (born 20 March 1984) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a striker.

He is the current manager of Atlético Madrid Juvenil A.

Due to his consistent goalscoring rate as a young player, Torres came to be nicknamed El Niño ('The Kid'), which stuck with him throughout his career.

In his prime, he was praised for his pace, accurate finishing, and proficiency in heading, and was named in the FIFA World XI twice.

Torres started his career with Atlético Madrid, progressing through their youth system to the first-team squad.

He impressed the scouts and joined the club's youth system at age 11 in 1995.

After progressing through the ranks, Torres won his first important youth title in 1998.

Atlético sent an under-15 team to compete in the Nike Cup, in Spain and Europe, to play against youth teams from other clubs; Atlético won the tournament.

He was later voted the best player in Europe for the age group.

In 1999, at the age of 15, Torres signed his first professional contract with Atlético.

He spent his first year playing in the youth team and participated in the Honor Division when he was 16.

The 2000–01 season had started poorly, as Torres suffered from a cracked shinbone which kept him out of play until December.

He made his first-team debut in 2001 and finished his time at the club with 75 goals in 174 La Liga appearances.

Torres trained with the first team to get prepared for pre-season, but eventually made his debut on 27 May 2001, at the Vicente Calderón Stadium, against Leganés.

One week later, he scored his first goal for the club, against Albacete, and the season finished with Atlético narrowly missing out on promotion to La Liga.

Atlético were promoted to La Liga at the end of the 2001–02 season, although Torres did not perform well in the season, as he netted only 6 times in 36 appearances in the Segunda División.

Torres' first season in La Liga, 2002–03, was better, however, as he scored 13 goals in 29 appearances, with Atlético finishing in 11th place.

Torres is a Spanish international and made his debut against Portugal in 2003.

He has been capped over 100 times and is his country's third-highest goalscorer of all-time.

In July 2003, soon after his takeover of the club, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich had a £28 million bid for Torres rejected by Atlético's board of directors.

In the 2003–04 season, his second in La Liga, Torres made further strides, scoring 19 league goals in 35 appearances, meaning he finished as the joint third-highest scorer in the league.

At age 19, Torres was named Atlético's captain.

Atlético narrowly missed out on qualification for the UEFA Cup, but by finishing in seventh place in the 2003–04 season, they qualified for the 2004 UEFA Intertoto Cup, giving Torres a first taste of a competition at the European level.

With Spain, he has participated in six major tournaments: UEFA Euro 2004, the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup, Euro 2012, and the 2014 World Cup.

Torres joined Premier League club Liverpool in 2007, after signing for a club record transfer fee.

The most prolific goalscoring spell of his career, he became the fastest player in Liverpool history to score 50 league goals and was often regarded as one of the best strikers in the world.

In 2008, he finished third for both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year.

Spain won the three tournaments from 2008 to 2012, with Torres scoring in the finals of both Euro 2008 and Euro 2012.

He scored the winning goal in the 2008 European Championship, and won the Golden Boot for highest goalscorer in 2012.

Born in Fuenlabrada, Community of Madrid, Torres became interested in football as a child and joined his first team, Parque 84, at age five.

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 began playing football as a goalkeeper, the position his brother played in.

At age seven, however, he started playing regularly as a striker in an indoor league for the neighbourhood club, Mario's Holanda, 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.

Striving to compete for trophies, Torres left Liverpool in January 2011 to join Chelsea for a British record transfer fee of £50 million, which made him the most expensive Spanish player in history.

At Chelsea, Torres won the FA Cup, UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, though his goalscoring rate and performances drastically declined.

Torres joined Serie A club AC Milan on a two-year loan prior to the 2013–14 season, and signed permanently in January 2015.

In the same month, he agreed to rejoin Atlético Madrid on loan until the end of the 2015–16 season, before signing permamently for the club in July 2016.

Torres won the 2017-18 UEFA Europa League before he signed for Japanese club Sagan Tosu in July 2018, retiring from football after the 2018-19 season.