by Luca Caioli
It’s up to him to show them he is at the same level of the greats of Spain – the Raúls, the Valeróns, the Tristáns. He knows that they are putting him under the spotlight but he’s used to it. At Atlético he is the first to be praised and the first to be subjected to scrutiny. The national side, however, is going through a bad phase. During qualification for Euro 2004, Spain suffers two bad setbacks against Greece and Northern Ireland. They couldn’t make any more mistakes and above all they couldn’t make them against Ukraine the following Wednesday. It will be a crucial encounter in which Torres will start. In short, the game against Portugal – although a friendly that comes at a bad time (a very bad time, four days before a must-win tie) – it’s a key test for the nineteen who are in the national side for the first time. Iñaki’s idea is to put him in the front line of attack, ‘so that he can run and fight for the ball’ with Raúl behind. The manager hopes it will work so that he can do it again. Torres, for his part, yearns for a good game, a goal and a win.
It’s a clear 0-3 victory but in the Alfonso Henriques stadium (which had just been refurbished for the following year’s Euro 2004) the reality doesn’t match up to earlier expectations. Meira and Couto, the two Portuguese defenders, give him such a kicking that he has to receive medical treatment just before the end of the first half. In the 36th minute, Fernando Meira tackles him from behind, crashing into his left ankle and leaving him limping. Fernando Manuel Silva Couto completes the job in the 43rd minute with a ferocious kick. Raúl, captain of Real Madrid and the national side, comments: ‘I warned him it was going to be a very difficult match. He was in front of some hard defenders who were going to give him a tough time but it’s the route he’s got to follow. Torres is the future of Spanish football.’ Torres himself is also aware that these are the risks of the trade. ‘What do you want? That they don’t give me a hard time?’ he asks at the end of the match, putting an end to any argument over the blows he has received. And he adds that he’s as happy as a sandboy because he’s made his first appearance in the senior side.
On his performance, there’s not much to report – a miskick that goes high, some good control to get round the direct-minded opposition, and good passing. The critics were generous, stressing that the youngster seemed intimidated at the start. He wasn’t the centre of attention as he usually was when playing for Atlético, and they also underlined the lack of interaction with his team-mates. That’s normal, it’s the first time. The try-out, however, is sufficiently convincing, at least for Iñaki, that at Elche in Spain, in the home match against Ukraine, he will be a definite starter. And this time it’s going to be serious. Qualification is in the balance. In the 51st minute, Dymitrulin up-ends Etxeberría in the area. Penalty. Fernando Torres takes the ball and calmly places it on the spot. Before the match, Sáez asked who was ready to take a penalty. El Niño raised his hand. He wants to show that now he’s arrived in the national side, he wants to stay. For a long time. He’s not nervous or overawed as he steps back from the spot. To score is crucial. Spain aren’t playing well and Andriy Voronin (a future team-mate of Torres at Liverpool) has already sent a message of intent to Spain keeper, Iker Casillas. Fernando makes his run-up and sends a slow, limp, average shot to the left of the keeper. Shovkovskyy guesses right and grabs the ball. Torres can’t do anything more than kick the air in frustration. Fortunately, this failure doesn’t turn out to be decisive (Spain, thanks to Raúl, win 2-1), but next day, criticism of the youngster’s error doesn’t make for light reading.
And what’s more, all the commentators ask why it was up to him to take responsibility for the penalty when, in the national team, there are others with more experience of spot-kicks, like Reyes or Xavi. Iñaki Sáez calms the waters and explains: ‘I think you have to go through this sort of experience in order to be successful. But there’s nothing to worry about. This will help him become a better player.’ Prophetic words. Because that’s certainly what he becomes. He applies himself to the task, as well as Gregorio Manzano, his trainer at Atlético, who, for several days, is photographed explaining to his player exactly how to take a penalty and get it right. ‘It was just an exercise in how to visualise,’ explains Manzano today, ‘so that he would take other penalties, with the thought that your first idea is what you have to stick with and not change it at the last moment. I wanted to help him. He was starting to grow in the national team and to demonstrate his skills in spite of the failure against Ukraine.’
Also of interest at Elche is that Milan sporting director, Ariedo Braida, is amongst the spectators. He wants to see in the flesh the new jewel of Spanish football. Information that he’s received from his observers is very good. They’re thinking seriously of making an offer to Atlético. But Torres, who has spoken to his team-mates and ex-Milan players Demetrio Albertini and José Mari, rules out for the moment any move to Italy. It’s better to be older for Italian football. There’s the risk of getting burned …
But we return to the national side and redemption. It takes place seven months later by complete coincidence in Italy, in Genova, against the Italian national side on 28 April 2004. An important friendly. For Italy, it’s a homage to 37-year-old Roberto Baggio, the great improviser of Vicenza, Fiorentina, Juventus, Milan, Inter, Brescia and of the national team, from which he will retire at the end of the season. The European Footballer of the Year 1993 returns to the national team after five years’ absence for one last game in the blue shirt. For Spain, it’s the last test before Euro 2004. The Spanish manager sends out the same team as for the game with Portugal. He decides to try out two strike pairings, Raúl with Morientes and Valerón plus Fernando Torres. El Niño comes on at the beginning of the second half wearing his lucky Number 14. His team-mates have given him permission to choose it because fourteen, he says, has always brought him luck. And these things in football are no laughing matter. Fernando wants to score. He feels that this time it’s right. After four matches with the national side, he needs to get rid of his psychological block. One knows that the first goal for a striker is crucial. Eight minutes after the break, Albelda wins the ball in midfield, passes it directly upfield to Valerón who waits for the right moment – the Italian defenders come out – before giving it to Torres, who shoots across the goal towards the far post, which is out of Peruzzi’s reach. It’s his first goal with the senior squad. A celebration that is rained on three minutes later by Bobo Vieri who, by chance, is an ex-Atlético Madrid player. Torres is also left with the sensation that he could have scored again. This time, however, everyone praises El Niño’s impressive performance.
He gets the OK for Euro 2004 in Portugal. Iñaki Sáez explains Torres’ call-up like this: ‘He is youth personified. What he has shown in the national side is his character. He has two essential qualities – competitiveness and speed. He is growing and no one knows his limit.’
In spite of all the praise, the manager, once on Portuguese soil, doesn’t count on him at the beginning. In the first match against Russia, he comes on as a 77th minute substitute for an unlucky Raúl. It’s the same story in the second encounter against Greece, with barely a quarter of an hour on the pitch, once again replacing the team captain. The 10,000 Spanish fans who have arrived in Porto to see the match that could give them qualification to the quarter-finals are encouraged to see him on the pitch. But the ‘little prince’ of Atlético hardly touches the ball. He can’t turn the draw into a win and the resulting stalemate now requires Spain to put everything on a win against the host side, Portugal.
Lisbon, 20 June 2004, 8.45pm, the José Alvalade stadium, the third and final match day in Group A and this time, El Niño is in the starting line-up. It’s what he was hoping for. He doesn’t want to go home without ever being in the initial eleven, he wants to respond to the expectations that his call-up generated after his eye-catching performance against Italy. ‘I’ve also put a lot into this European competition,’ he says, ‘and we all have great expectations for this tournament. Not to reach the quarter-fina
ls would be a failure,’ and adds: ‘We can’t go into history as another national side that has achieved nothing.’ He’s convinced that ‘if we do things well we shouldn’t have any problems against Portugal.’ After all, Spain had beaten them easily on 6 September of the previous year, on his debut. Of course, this isn’t a friendly, but the idea of getting eliminated doesn’t enter the head of the twenty-year-old with five matches wearing the shirt of Spain. He’s changed his look for the occasion, getting rid of his long locks with a crew-cut down to almost zero. In the absence of his trusted Madrid stylist, he asked Juanito del Betis to shave it off, setting the cutter at Number 1. But the new look doesn’t do much good.
At the end of the first half, the result is still 0-0. Fernando has hardly been in the game. The person who has been, and who has become a nightmare for the Spanish defence, is Cristiano Ronaldo. His performance is tremendous. The Manchester United winger has lots of opportunites to score but fails, either sending shots wide or through the efforts of Spanish keeper, Iker Casillas. The good news for Spain comes from the other game where Greece are losing 1-2 to Russia. With this scenario, it would be Spain and Greece going through. But with the second half barely under way, it’s clear that the host nation has no intention of being kicked out of its tournament. A great strike by Nuño Gomes puts them 1-0 up in the 56th minute. Saint Iker (Casillas) can’t get to it. Like this, Portugal go through. Five minutes later, Fernando has a chance for the equaliser. A splendid assist from Xabi Alonso, but as keeper Ricardo comes out of his goal, El Niño puts it onto the post. He despairs, he cannot believe it. He puts his head in his hands, his mouth open. Iñaki Sáez still remembers that failed attempt by Fernando: ‘A draw would have been enough and we would have got to the quarter-finals. Instead, we came back home. It was another failure by the national side. To think we’d set off with so much hope. It was a young team with players like Torres, Xavi, Alonso and Reyes, together with very experienced players like Raúl, Baraja and Albelda. But in the end, my plans didn’t work.’ And Iñaki’s adventure ended.
On 1 July 2004, the Real Federación Española de Fútbol (Royal Spanish Football Federation) named 66-year-old Luis Aragonés as the new manager, with 30 years’ experience across Spain and an old acquaintance of Fernando Torres. His debut is set for 18 August in Las Palmas in a friendly against Venezuela, ahead of qualification for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Fernando is there. He will be a fixture in the call-ups of the Aragonés era. He will be left out only once, for a friendly in Tenerife on 10 November 2006, against Romania, because of the Atlético captain’s poor league form with only two goals in eight games – his worst results since playing in the first division. Aragonés maintains that there are four strikers who are in better form than El Niño. He says he’s leaving him at home ‘so that he learns’. The match ends in a defeat for Spain. From that moment on, apart from when circumstances are beyond his control, the manager will not leave Fernando out of the side and Spain will not lose again with him on the side. At the beginning, however, things aren’t easy between Torres and Aragonés. The Atlético Number 9 is always the first to be substituted. Something that doesn’t make him at all happy. On 7 September 2005, Spain play Serbia in a qualifying game for the Germany World Cup in Atlético’s Vicente Calderón stadium. Torres comes onto the pitch in the starting line-up because Fernando Morientes – then a player at Liverpool – is injured. For El Niño to play in his home stadium in the national side is something very special. A big moment in his career.
But in the 56th minute, he’s substituted. On in his place goes Tamudo. In the papers the following day, he reads that he’s played without composure, not knowing how to use his skills, speed or strength. In other words, that in the national side he’s not able to establish himself, to prove his worth or demonstrate his gifts. The encounter ends in a draw. The qualification process is getting bogged down. They need to win against Belgium. And it’s typical that Aragonés puts him to the test in a difficult match like the one in the Heysel stadium in Brussels on 10 October 2005. He listens to El Niño’s complaints about his repeated substitutions and takes a gamble on him. He puts him on the pitch in a complicated match. And it’s there that he finally gets a big thorn out of his side. Two superb passes from José Antonio Reyes (then a player with Arsenal and a former team-mate of Torres from the junior national sides) and two goals that re-energise the team’s drive for qualification. The first, in the 56th minute, is a wonderful strike. Reyes sends a long ball upfield, Torres gets behind the Belgian defence and takes off to thump the ball exactly in the space between the opposite post and crossbar.
Finally, El Niño does what everyone expects of a centre forward – finally he silences the doubts that his play was generating.
Spain qualify through the play-offs, without too many worries, beating Slovakia 5-1 in the first leg (including a penalty from Torres) and a one-all draw in the second to put them into the World Cup.
‘I’ve dreamed loads of times about being in the World Cup,’ says Fernando, adding with a smile, ‘I want to be in the final and be champion of the world.’ It won’t be like that. Let’s see what really happens …
In Leipzig’s Zentralstadion on 14 June, 2006, the first match in Group H. Spain 4 Ukraine 1 – a victory, a perfect game and an 81st minute goal for Fernando is the icing on the cake. A move that starts with Puyol, the Barcelona defender getting free of the Ukrainian defence by making a Rocastle Manoeuvre (named after former Arsenal player David Rocastle) or Marseille Turn (after the version of the move used by French player, Zinedine Zidane), involving a 360-degree spin or turn with the ball, while on the move. He gives the ball to Arsenal midfielder, Cesc, who looks around and returns it to the sender, who heads it on and into the path of the Number 9. A great strike taken in mid-air and the Spanish media brand it goal of the tournament. Overcoming the team of Andriy Shevchenko (the 2004 European Footballer of the Year and Chelsea’s then new signing) in such fashion sparks World Cup fever in Spain. The road to the final looks an easy downhill ride from here. Torres, who has scored his first goal in a World Cup final, insists: ‘We are playing well. We’re going step-by-step. We’re going to get people talking. But we aren’t the favourites – the favourites are those who’ve already won a World Cup and those who have more experience than us. They are the ones under pressure. Us, no. Because Spain hasn’t won a World Cup, nor been in a final.’
Five days later it’s Tunisia. Losing by a goal, Spain fight back. Against the rain and the North Africans’ defence, Torres is decisive. He scores twice, to make it 2-1 and then a third to make sure. The first is typical Torres – an inviting long ball from Cesc and off he goes running, beating the Tunisian defenders on pace, then tricking the keeper to score before celebrating like an archer in homage to his former Atlético team-mate and idol, Kiko. The second is a cleanly executed penalty. He’s brought down while about to fire in a header. He converts the spot-kick with a powerful shot. The keeper guesses correctly but the ball flashes between arm and leg. Torres is top-scorer for the tournament with three goals and Spain is through to the last sixteen.
But waiting there on 27 June is the France of Zinedine Zidane. The ex-Real Madrid player has already announced his retirement from football at the end of the World Cup. Three days before the game, Spanish sport daily, Marca, decides to stoke up the prematch atmosphere by running a front page headline: ‘We are going to retire Zidane’. An attempt at humour that doesn’t please the French captain, prompting him to comment: ‘There’s no need to talk before the match. It’s a pity. There are people who talk who would be better off keeping quiet, like Marca. What they’ve written has hurt me.’
Fernando Torres doesn’t take the same line as Marca and sends this message: ‘It’s important to see Zidane in this World Cup. We will try to beat them but I hope he doesn’t retire and that we enjoy having him around for a lot longer and we hope it isn’t his last match.’ But even he is confident of the final result: ‘France is a great team,’ he says
, ‘but we believe in our football and in victory.’ Spain reaching the last sixteen is one of the pleasant surprises of the competition. The players are young (24 is the average age compared with 29 for France), they have a squad bursting with upcoming talent playing abroad (Cesc Fabregas for example), they’re hungry for victory and they want to surprise. They know how to play the ball and they never want to give up. All in all, they get so much out of playing that they have proudly come to symbolise the New Spain, which has achieved the top spots in Europe and across the world. From gastronomy (Ferran Adriá), sport (Fernando Alonso, Rafa Nadal), art (Miquel Barceló) and architecture (Santiago Calatrava). A country that doesn’t feel itself inferior to anyone and a new footballing generation that doesn’t carry the weight on its shoulders of endless failures. It can dream of overcoming its World Cup quarter-final taboo, always seen as an insurmountable obstacle.