Today, it is hard to think about Fernando Torres and not either laugh out loud, or feel an incredible amount of pity for the striker. While those who can relate to the former are probably Liverpool and Chelsea fans — whose fandom allows them to shamelessly make light of the utter implosion of a career — the rest of us unbiased human beings probably align more closely to the latter.
For those who do feel pity, that emotion hardly encapsulates the scope of things. He has won the World Cup, the European Cup, and the UEFA Champions League, but he is still seen as a failure. Fernando Torres’ career just might be the most complete example of how switching clubs can be a life-altering mistake. But, after falling from grace, his recent transfer to Atletico Madrid might finally be a step in the right direction.
Only time will tell if Torres’ move to Madrid can turn his career around. Torres may well never be the player he once was because of the toll time has taken on his body. If he wants to see a fraction of the success he saw as a young man, he has to rediscover an aspect of his game that has long since deserted him: his confidence.
In order to understand the magnitude of how far Torres needs to go, we must understand how far he has fallen.
Fernando Torres was once a force of nature. At Liverpool, he had a habit of making the best defenders in the Premier League at the time - Nemanja Vidic, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand - look like children trying to prevent a dog twice their size from escaping from their backyard. They did not know what to do with Torres, and that was really unfortunate, because “El Nino” knew exactly what to do with them.
He was not really that much faster than anyone else, neither was he capable of miraculous feats of dribbling, but when he was on his game, Torres made everyone else look like they were a class below. Above and beyond his skill, determination and strength, he had an unshakable confidence that every great player has. Fernando Torres always believed he could do what needed to be done in order to score, to win.
Torres’ belief in himself was why he was named the Captain of Atletico Madrid at the age of 19, why he scored the trophy-winning goal of Euro 2008, and why, in just a year and a half, he was named one of the 50 greatest players in the history of one of the most storied clubs in the entire world, Liverpool.
As a Red, Torres had the emotional support of the fans, the faith of his teammates, and the backing of his manager. Torres’ career during that time was as prolific and successful as any player in the world. His consistent prowess inspired this chant from the Liverpool faithful:
His armband proved he was a red - Torres, Torres
You’ll never walk alone it said - Torres, Torres
We bought the lad from sunny Spain
He get’s the ball, he scores again
Fer-nan-do Torres, Liverpool’s Number Nine
Make no mistake, Torres could have gone down in history as the greatest striker to ever play for Liverpool, but it was not to be. Premier League rivals Chelsea lured Torres away in the January transfer window of 2011, and he was never the same player again.
When Torres arrived at Chelsea in 2011, he carried with him the weight of the world on his shoulders. With a £50 million price tag, Chelsea expected a goal scoring machine, but what they ended up getting was a shadow of a player.
In his defense, Torres transferred under some of the worst circumstances possible. The entire first half of his season before the transfer was plagued by a knee injury that saw him miss time, as well as match-winning form. He came to Chelsea in the midst of trying to find himself. It is safe to say he never did.
After losing in his Chelsea debut against none other than Liverpool, Torres would go 903 minutes without scoring. By the time he ended the streak against West Ham, the damage was already done. Torres lacked self-belief, and his play suffered immensely.
That goal against West Ham would be the only one of his entire inaugural season at Chelsea, and it set the tone for the following one. In his second year with the Blues, Torres would score 11 goals in 49 games, giving him 14 goals in a year an a half in all competitions. He had scored 11 in his last half-year with Liverpool alone.
His confidence was gone, and a player that once merely had to imagine how to score in order to do it, suddenly could not score if his life depended on it. His career became defined by failure after failure, none more devastating than his miss against Manchester United in a 3-1 defeat.
If January 31st, 2011, the date of his Chelsea transfer, goes down in history as the day Torres’ career fell off the precipice, then that miss on September 28th, 2011 against United must mark the moment he hit rock bottom. When Torres sent that ball wide of an open net, the world knew he was finished.
With the evaporation of what little faith the fans, Chelsea management, and even he himself had, Torres went on a 25 appearance run where he found the net only 3 times. “El Nino” was gone, and even an eventual loan spell to Milan three years later could not bring him back.
No one was surprised by Torres' lackluster stint at AC Milan. One goal in ten appearances had become his new norm. The English media said what was on everyone's mind. Photo: @CHUSSOpark | Twitter
It is fitting then, perhaps, that Torres’ latest move is not a voyage into the unknown, but a return to his roots: Atletico Madrid. The club will always be the one that gave Torres’ his big break, that allowed him to become “El Nino.” It is also, quite possibly, the only place in the world capable of bring Torres’ back to even 80% of the player he was in his heyday.
Fernando Torres needs belief, and Atletico Mardid can provide it. Atletico is coming off a statement season last year, in which it beat out Barcelona and Real Madrid for the La Liga title, and came with in minutes of winning the Champions League Final. Even with the departure of Diego Costa, the Atleti still believe that they can win everything, when so many people think that they will win nothing.
Even this season, Atletico Madrid is tied for 2nd on points in La Liga, and has won its Champions League group, beating out Italian giants Juventus, and still no one thinks that they will win either of those competitions. Yet Atletico might still pull a trophy out of this season, because they work hard, have talent, and their manager inspires his players to leave their hearts on the pitch.
Torres has come to the kind of environment that he needs to rekindle his confidence. When Torres was unveiled in the Vicente Calderon in front of 45,000 screaming fans, you just got the sense that he realizes the moment he is in, and is not afraid, but awed and grateful.
Torres has not had that kind of support since he left Liverpool. There will be new chants, new teammates, and a fresh start. He knows that Atletico has inspired him to greatness before. Now, he just might believe it can do it again.
