by Luca Caioli
And to explain how Torres was, he remembers the away match in Belgium: ‘At dinner, in the hotel, they served a vegetable soup and lots of the lads put their plates to one side without touching it, saying they found it nauseating, so much so that Rangel shouted ‘You don’t play if you haven’t eaten everything.’ It wasn’t necessary to say it to Fernando. He ate anything.’
Bierbeek – the first away match, the first foreign trip, the hotel, the team-mates, the first team base, the first international tournament. A lot of excitement for Fernando in those days of August 1995. Around 30 different teams are taking part in the tournament, including Ajax, Anderlecht, Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich – clubs that boast a long tradition of bringing through new talent. Atlético, on the other hand, has only just set up its junior teams. Manolo Rangel is worried about making a bad impression because his lads don’t know each other well. They haven’t even had time to train together. So, in-between matches, he gives them sessions with the ball and while walking round the hotel grounds, tries to explain how they should position themselves on the pitch.
During one of these sessions, he realises that ‘one of them, I think it was Fernando, had kicked a stone and unfortunately it broke a window in someone’s house. The owner came out shouting and protesting, with us not being able to understand what he was saying. We went through some difficult moments before someone from the organisation came and sorted things out.’ A stone that stayed in the memories of the coach and the youngsters. And it may actually have helped to unite the team because, in spite of the improvisation, they finish in sixth place. ‘Fernando stood out quite well and there were a lot of positive comments about him,’ adds Rangel.
It was then 1995–96, the first season in the red-and-white shirt. An important season for the club, which won a league and cup (Copa del Rey) double for the first time in its history. It broke the dominance of Real Madrid and Barcelona. A success for the team managed by Radomir Antic, whose leading players included Kiko, Pantic, Caminero and Simeone. A double that reinforced the emotional ties between Torres and Atléti. And the pride of wearing the shirt of the Spanish champions.
Fernando was doing his part in the junior divisions. He gets 67 goals and is top-scorer, the sporting leader of the team and the focal point of the group. His skills are showcased in the Torneo de Brunete (the Brunete Tournament), a competition in which about twenty junior teams from clubs in the Spanish first division take part and where many young Spanish champions make their early mark. The youngster is fascinated by the atmosphere, the terraces at the Estadio Los Arcos, the television cameras filming the matches, the fans and the watchful eye of the observers and trainers at the games. He scores a succession of quick-fire goals, one after the other, and runs to tell his grandfather.
The following year, the shots of him used by regional television channel, Telemadrid, always show him at Brunete on the pitch against Milan, tall and thin, with his blond bob haircut and the Number 9 on his back. Fernando puts away penalties that the keeper can’t get hold of, dribbles past opponents even with a backheel and scores to make it 3-0 and then 4-0 in a perfect counter-attacking move going round the onrushing keeper.
‘Fernando was a born winner. He also wanted to win in training. I was 39, I had to quit playing football but I was in good enough condition to run with them,’ remembers Rangel, ‘I enjoyed making bets with him regarding a game, penalties, or who would score the most goals from a free-kick. And Fernando was really competitive. At the end of training, he would be waiting with his sports bag to inform me, ‘Coach, you owe me a Coca-Cola for what I’ve won from you.’ He was very bright, very smart.’
And Rangel is keen to stress, like Briñas, the importance of grandfather Torres Sanz: ‘A fantastic family, very close and well-balanced, which helped him enormously to be a footballer.’ His parents, José and Flori, his brother Israel and Mari Paz, his sister, help him in every way. On many occasions, his father has to get permission from work to take him from Fuenlabrada to Orcasitas, where he trains. His mother waits for him in front of the school gates in the wind and the rain, goes with him on the bus or on the train to the ground, and waits for the training to end to bring him back home. And without ever insisting or demanding that he become a professional. On the contrary, she tells him many times that ‘if you are tired or you don’t want to play, tell me and we won’t go again’. His brother and sister also assume their responsibilities for the 15-kilometre (about 10 miles) daily trip. They have to study and do their homework sitting on the terraces at the ground. Years divided between school and training, with matches at the weekend. The best thing is when Fernando joins Atlético’s residential Colegio Amanecer school, just outside the centre of Madrid where, today, around 30 youngsters between the ages of fifteen and eighteen study up to the Spanish equivalent of A-levels. ‘Fernando was a student who knew how to combine books with the ball,’ recalls school coordinator Rafael Bravo. ‘His parents wrote us a very emotive letter when Fernando got his Bachillerato (equivalent to A-levels).’
A good student and an excellent footballer, so much so that he regularly ends up being the youngest in each of his Atlético junior teams. He plays with youngsters who are one, two or even three years older than him. It is a way of growing up more quickly and a way of learning more rapidly the rules of football because the older ones are stronger technically and physically and better-prepared mentally. Fernando works his way up through the junior ranks. Manolo Rangel is his teacher for three seasons.
Then it is Pedro Calvo’s turn to take charge of him for a year. Fernando is fourteen. How was he? ‘His manner and professionalism were the same as they are now,’ explains 40-year-old Calvo, enjoying a cafe latte in a central Madrid bar. ‘He was already the team captain but the responsibilities didn’t weigh him down. You would tell him that we eat at two o’clock and that everyone should come properly turned out. And ten minutes before time, he would be there with his team-mates, all properly dressed. He was always thinking about the group. He was very humble and he didn’t like too much praise. He didn’t get nervous, a normal thing at that age. He didn’t get angry. I remember that once I blamed him for the behaviour of the team and, instead of giving me a dirty look, he thought the problem over and it never went further than the dressing room. In a footballing sense he was the same as now: rapid, sharp, skilled, very calm in front of goal and, above all, a sponge – he liked to learn.’
Calvo had in his care a line-up that, apart from Torres, could boast players like Manu Del Moral, now at Getafe, Francisco Molinero, today at Real Mallorca, Fernando Usero, now at Elche, and Sergio Torrers who will later win the Under-16 European championship with Fernando. Elements that made for a great season. The key moment is the Nike Under-14 World Club Cup, which took place in May 1999 in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The Atlético Cadete junior team has won the right to play in the prestigious European tournament after first coming through a national competition. The participants are: Real Madrid, Roma, Reggiana (Italy), Belenenses (Portugal), LASK (Austria), Amiens (France), LASK (Austria), Amiens (France), Mouscron (Belgium), B 93 (Denmark) St Joseph’s Boys (Ireland), Servette (Switzerland), Symonds Green (England), KFUM Oslo (Norway), Etzella (Luxembourg), PSV (Netherlands), Hammarby (Sweden), Inter Turku (Finland), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Heart of Midlothian (Scotland).
Before the final phase, they take part in a four-sided event with Porto, PSV and Andorra. ‘Against our near-neighbours, Andorra, we won 11-1 but we played poorly, without commitment, without bite,’ remembers Calvo. ‘So everyone, and Fernando in particular, was read the riot act before the final against PSV. They were told that this would not do and that they had to do better. He went out onto the pitch really wanting to show me that he didn’t merit what I’d said. So in one of the first moves, he swerved past five opponents, then went round the keeper, stopped the ball on the goal line, looked over to the dugout and blasted a shot into the goal.’
In the quarter-finals at the Reggio Emilia tournament, the At
lético youngsters once again come up against PSV. The Dutch are dismissed with a decisive 3-0 scoreline. And Fernando repeated the same trick – in the first move of the match, he gets past three opponents, nutmegs the fourth and lobs the keeper to put them in the lead. The semi-final sees them up against Real Madrid, a Spanish city derby in Italy. A difficult contest against the title-holders, who had disposed of Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-finals. The 2-0 final scoreline leaves no doubts, however, as to the title pretensions of Atlético, who will now meet host side Reggiana in the final. Molinero scored in the eighth minute and it stays at 1-0 until the final whistle. It is the first important title – the first European Cup – that Fernando, the captain, holds aloft.
He is chosen as the best player of the tournament, a recognition that, together with his goals and his movement off the ball, attracts the attention of several European clubs. ‘Arsenal made an offer to Fernando’s father and Barcelona and Milan were also keen. So much so that the club decided to offer him his first professional contract,’ explains Calvo. At fifteen years of age, Torres signs the contract. It’s not worth as much as Arsenal were offering but he’s happy. He is playing for the team he loves. Football, for him, begins to be more than just a hobby, even if he does not yet realise that it will be his life and his profession. That is still some years ahead.
Meanwhile, he moves up from the Cadete team to the Juvenil – another way of saying he jumped three years in one go. He meets Abraham García – the last coach he would have in the junior teams and a key figure in his career development – and Ignacio Aznar Torrente, better known as ‘Nacho’, with whom he formed an attacking strike duo. ‘We understood each other well. We knew, without speaking, where the other was on the pitch at any given moment,’ recalls Aznar, who today plays at Club Deportivos Leganés in Group II of the Spanish Second Division B. ‘Fer was a model of power, ability to score with headers, movement and finishing in front of goal. We became a pair capable of scoring 70 goals a season. Abraham demanded a lot from us. He pushed us, him and me. He was never satisfied. He knew that Fernando and I could go further.’
One match that Nacho has not forgotten is the final of the international tournament, Citta di Rieti, in May 2000. Fernando says one of his legs is hurting but García knows that his presence on the pitch is important. ‘Get out there and win this final. If not, you’re not going to get anywhere,’ he tells them. Fernando plays and scores the goal that sets them on their way. Lazio are swept aside 5-0 and Atlético win another prestigious trophy – as well as the junior league championship a few months later. But the young striker in red and white is then hit by a setback. It happens on 9 August at Boadilla, while training with a team made up of players from the Spanish third division. Fernando clashes with a central defender and collapses. Damaged knee ligaments is the grim verdict. A really bad-looking injury. After the operation, the doctors say it will be eight to 10 months before he can play again. Team-mate José Verdú Toché (now with Numancia), who suffers the same injury at the same time, returns to football eleven months later, in May 2001. Fernando Torres, on the other hand, thanks to his determination and exceptional physical condition, is already back on the pitch in December 2000.
The year to come will bring a huge amount of satisfaction as well as a major disappointment.
Chapter 8
A model footballer
Conversation with Atlético de Madrid junior team coach, Abraham García
There is more activity than usual at the Ciudad Deportiva de Majadahonda (Majadahonda Sports City) in Cerro del Espino, about twelve miles from Madrid city centre. Abel Resino, the new manager of Atlético Madrid (who replaced the Mexican, Javier Aguirre), is directing his first training session. Television crews, zoom lenses and all eyes are focused on the playing area, where the first team is being put through its paces. Journalists are commentating and taking notes on the team set-up, while fans and curious bystanders watch with interest. They are trying to work out what the ex-Atlético goalkeeper (whose European tally for clean sheets – 1,275 minutes set in 1990–91 – was beaten earlier this year by Manchester United’s Edwin Van de Sar) is telling his new players.
Everyone has their back turned to the green rectangle where Atlético B is training or, to be more precise, where the junior team – made up of seventeen- to eighteen-year-olds – is playing a match. Green bibs against red vests. On the edge of the pitch is the manager, Abraham García, arms folded across his chest, watching how his charges are developing. Every now and then, he shouts an instruction to Cedric, a young midfielder born in Kinshasa, or to striker Didí, who is from Barcelona. Ten minutes after the training is over, the youngsters all pile out. Abraham comes over to the boundary fence and arranges to meet at the dressing room exit. First, there is the customary banter with his young players and then a shower to freshen up and get warm again. Despite the spring sky, it is still cold at Cerro del Espino.
For 35-year-old Abraham, built more like a rugby prop forward than a midfielder, football runs in the family. His father, ‘Juanjo’ García, who died a few years ago, was manager of Castilla, Real Madrid’s second team and took the side to a Copa del Rey (King’s Cup) final against the Real Madrid first team. For the last eleven years he has trained junior teams, first at Atlético, then three years at Real Madrid, and is now back at the home of the red-and-white stripes. Fernando Torres always speaks of him as the most important manager of his career. Why? Abraham, who is now out of his training tracksuit and sitting at a café in front of the Ciudad Deportiva with a large glass of Coca-Cola in front of him, begins to explain: ‘Fernando is very generous and recognises the work of a manager and the effort he puts in. Our relationship, which lasted two years, was more of a professional than a personal one. When I look at the great managers that he’s had during his career, for him to remember me like this gives me a lot of pride and satisfaction.’
When did you begin to work with him?
‘Fernando was fifteen and had just won the Nike International Cup in Reggio Emilia, Italy, where he was top scorer and been voted the player of the tournament. He was with me until 2001, when he made his debut with the first team.’
How was Fernando at fifteen?
‘A player with a tremendous build, which comes from his family (his older brother, Israel, was 6ft 3ins when he was fifteen). He had the muscles of a sprinter, was fast, skilful, smart, hungry for victory and always wanting to get better. He was very professional, self-critical and never 100 per cent happy with how he was playing. He put the bar high. He had a strong personality. On a mental level, to me he always resembled Raúl for his strength of spirit. For his importance as a footballer, I would compare him to Van Basten with his elegant style of running and capacity for scoring goals. From when he was small, he was always thinking of the goal, of scoring.’
And off the field, how did he behave?
‘He wasn’t a docile lad. Dealing with him, sometimes, was tricky. He was quite shy and would mind his own business. From when he was a small boy, he was sheltered by his family, which knew how to keep him on the straight and narrow. I remember his father or mother always brought him to training sessions and I never saw them brag about the lad. His personality and his environment have absolutely been key to Fernando’s success.’
Abraham paused a moment before reflecting on his work …
‘In all the years that I’ve been training youngsters – and I’ve worked with more than 300 – only about fifteen or twenty have gone on to be professional footballers. Talent is inborn, each one (of them) has it, but to reach the top level – that’s something else. You must stick to your guns. You’ve got to have your feet on the ground, to know what’s really important in life, to earn yourself a place in the team, to fight for a position and to overcome enormous difficulties, particularly psychological ones. To put it simply, you not only have to have the gift of being able to control a football – your mentality, desire and determination counts for a hell of a lot as well. This is the mo
st important thing that I’ve tried to instil into my players, apart from obviously giving them a training in those technical skills that could be useful to them in the future.’
What exactly did you teach Fernando?
‘All I did was try to tell him some things that, at a sporting and human level, could help him deal with whatever might come his way. I told him to be what he’s always been, an ambitious young guy who’d be able to sort out the shortcomings he had, as everyone has, and in the end his desire to do things well would overcome any criticism or difficult moments. Then, more as a joke than anything else, I told him not to worry, that if one day the football didn’t work out, with his looks and general appearance, he could always earn a living in the world of fashion. And now look where he is, a star player as well as being a model in loads of advertising campaigns.’
What are your best memories of Fernando at that time?
‘Without doubt, a fantastic goal he scored in the league against Rayo Vallecano. He got hold of the ball in the middle of the pitch, he went past one, two, three, dribbling his way through the opposition midfield leaving them rooted to the spot and then scoring an amazing goal. And then after that, how can you forget the trophies we won with that team? For example, the league title, which we snatched from Real Madrid. A pity about the Cup though, Fernando was a member of the Spanish national side that had just won the European Under-16 Championship and he didn’t want to miss the Cup final against Osasuna. We lost 1-0. In any case, it was another example of the desire he had to be on the pitch and to help his team-mates win another title. He was the player everyone looked up to. He had charm and he made the difference.’