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-finals 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.
The favourites by miles. They all say it. Even Spanish Prime Minister Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is convinced that against the French his fellow-countrymen will do it. The morning of the match, he calls Luis Aragonés to tell him: ‘You have my support and my confidence.’ An awful lot of confidence because on the other side is a France that is sad and depressed. They are a group of stars on the wane, so much so that someone has compared them to the Rolling Stones. They qualified as the second team in Group G (two draws and a victory), as a divided squad, overwhelmed with doubts and criticism. A group that found it difficult to get to Germany and continues down the same road. One recognises that they have skill and much experience but opposite the youthful attractions of Torres and his team-mates, these qualities don’t count for much. More or less everyone thinks like this in Spain.
It’s a pity that things don’t turn out differently. Going a goal up via a David Villa penalty won’t help them at all. Franck Ribéry, former Arsenal player Patrick Viera and Zidane – that old player destined for early retirement – will bury the Spanish dream. Once more they leave empty-handed. And there is even someone who reports that the defeat – or the crucial second French goal scored with a header from Viera – is the fault of Torres. ‘I told one of them: “You, what you have to do is learn three words in French and when there is a free-kick, get close to Viera and distract him”,’ relates Luis Aragonés. It’s a shame that at the crucial moment Torres, with the responsibility of keeping an eye on Viera, forgets the advice of his manager. When he gets near the dugout, Luis shouts at him: ‘But didn’t I tell you? What happened?’ ‘Boss, Viera had already learned Spanish.’ An urban myth, one of the many jokes doing the rounds. What is certain is that Fernando hasn’t forgotten the defeat against France. He remembers the Germany World Cup and because of this, damps down the euphoria after the resounding victory in the first match of Euro 2008.
14 June 2008
Oddly enough, the day after the hammering of the Russians and in the seclusion of Neustift, a charming Tyrolean village, there are long faces all round. What has happened? Luis Aragonés doesn’t like Torres’ reaction one little bit after he substituted him in the 54th minute. What had El Niño done? Nothing that might be on a par with Egyptian Ahmed Hossam Hussein Abdelhamid, better known as ‘Mido’, the Wigan Athletic striker previously with Tottenham and Middlesbrough. In the semi-final of the 2006 African Nations Cup, Mido lost his cool as he made his way to the bench, insulted the trainer, Hassam Shehata, by calling him a donkey and it almost came to a punch-up. He got himself a six-month suspension. No, the Liverpool striker hadn’t gone that far, he hadn’t made a big scene. It was just that, eight minutes into the second half, the electronic panel announcing the change had appeared and he had walked over to the bench with a seemingly peeved expression on his face. But what’s all this? We’re winning. I’m playing all right. I can really get stuck in too and score on the counter-attack and the gaffer takes me off – always me, it’s always me who has to come off first. The change has really upset him. So much so, that when Luis offers him his hand to greet him off, Torres looks the other way and hurls the tracksuit top the kit-man passes him onto the ground. He sits on the
bench looking miffed. It seems like history has rewound back to his first year at Atlético Madrid, when the Wise Man of Hortaleza would substitute him time and again. And at a press conference everyone imagines should be a happy event, Aragonés doesn’t pass up the chance to tell all and sundry:
‘I can understand it when a player gets annoyed, and I’m on Torres’ side, but then a bit of decorum is important. This isn’t the last of this. I agree with footballers getting angry when they’re replaced, and it’s happened to me, but these are special circumstances and the ones that play are just as important as those that don’t. Those that don’t play should be pissed off, sure. Otherwise, why would we have brought them here? But first let them be annoyed with themselves and then with whoever. Manners though, and I say this again, are what is most important.’
And to finish off he aims a very clear message at Torres: ‘This isn’t the last of this; one shouldn’t let things like this go.’
A pretty harsh reproach, which leaves the journalists nonplussed. For example, Enrique Ortego, writing for
ABC
, thinks that ‘Luis could have just said nothing and had a quiet word alone with the player, as he has already done.’ But Ortego, like a lot of other commentators, understands why he did it: ‘He wanted to show public opinion that he’s not going to take any cheek from any players. He doesn’t want a repeat of what happened in the World Cup in Germany, when some who weren’t in the starting line-up for the first match didn’t contribute towards a good atmosphere.’
And what does El Niño say? He plays the whole thing down: ‘There’s no big deal. I’ve had a chat with the boss and it’s just another change, there’s really no problem. I’ve never had any problems with trainers. I just think it’s a shame that these things are being singled out so much
when Spain has just beaten Russia 4-1.’ And in front of the Tele 5 cameras he adds: ‘It’s always the same. The code of conduct in the dressing room that Luis has taught me since I was sixteen is the one that should apply to me in all this. What happens in the dressing room is straightened out in the dressing room. I would never snub the boss. All of us players are with our national trainer right up to the very end.’ The controversy ends there. So much so, that Luis says: ‘And I’m not angry, not bothered at all. What happened with Torres doesn’t matter in the slightest. I had a chat with him in training, but that’s nothing new. I had him as a player at Atlético since he was a kid. He’s almost like my son and I’ve always given him what I believe to be useful little tips.’
After the explanations the gaffer confirms that Fernando is set to start in the Sweden match at Innsbruck: ‘He’s key to my plans,’ he says. That’s a certainty, but the national coach asks Fernando to do a job he doesn’t do at Liverpool. He asks him to do what he used to do at Atlético, which is to drop wide to create spaces and make runs to draw people in, which can make life hard in front of goal. So much so that, with the national team, Fernando has only scored two goals in 33 outings – a paltry haul for the striker who, in the season just ended, caused a furore in the Premier League.
And so the Sweden match has become a do-or-die affair for Fernando. Will he manage to do what has been asked of him? Will he score? Will he, after all, be at ease as part of the
Roja
? Everyone is waiting on Torres as though he were Godot. But this time Godot arrives on time. It’s Fernando who gets the scoreboard moving. An emphatic reply to the doubts sparked by his replacement and the subsequent statements from the gaffer. It’s fifteen minutes into the first half and Luis’ prepared plan to topple the towering Swedes swings into action. Because Torres’ goal is pure strategy,
somebody has dubbed it a ‘laboratory goal’. Corner: Xavi, from the corner to the Swedish goalkeeper’s right, kicks it short for Villa, who comes in to receive the ball along the touchline and draws in a central defender. David nudges it back, where another David comes in – Silva, the Canary Islands man. From the corner of the penalty area the Valencia midfield linkman with the strikers knocks in a waist-high cross-shot with a lot of swerve. Three Spaniards (Capdevilla, Ramos and Torres) are waiting to pounce on goal. The quickest is El Niño, who gets in ahead of his marker Hansson, sticks out his leg, and with the tip of his boot – or rather the studs – taps the ball into Isaksson’s goal. Fernando is back among the goals. He hadn’t scored with the
Roja
since 12 September, against Latvia. He’s satisfied because the set pieces and tactical plays practiced in training sessions have worked. He won’t score another goal until the final, against Germany, but his contribution against the yellow-shirts is vital.
El Niño is finally a star, his elusive runs cause pandemonium among central defenders, his ability to shake people off opens up space, he battles for every ball and he puts in the teamwork by dropping back to defend. And he also acts as a peacemaker between the referee and his team-mates when they claim a penalty against Silva that wasn’t blown. And one shouldn’t forget his contribution when Villa made it 2-1 in a last-gasp attempt when a draw seemed certain (the Swedes had drawn level through Zlatan Ibrahimovic, thanks to a mistake from Sergio Ramos). The miracle happened courtesy of
Villa Maravilla
(Villa the Wonder-worker), yet Fernando assisted with a monster pass (over 50 metres) from Capdevilla by jumping up, bamboozling an opponent, and allowing the ball to reach the Spanish Number 7, ‘El Guaje’ Villa, who sees the
Roja
through to the quarter-finals. On 15 June the talk is all about ‘the finest pairing in
Europe’ – Torres and Villa, with 51 goals this season they are the most lethal duo. Everyone concurs, admitting that they admire and envy the Number 7 and Number 9, who have put together five goals and two assists in two games. No one in the European Football Championship has done a better job. There is a shower of praise. The first to step up is Aragonés himself: ‘They have a perfect rapport because they have unique qualities and an amazing turn of speed. They are a major bonus for the team. They can get goals out of nothing.’ Pepe, a central defender with Portugal and Real Madrid, says: ‘With this brace of strikers Spain can really go places in the European Championship.’ And Ruud Van Nistelrooy, the Netherlands and Real Madrid striker, observes that: ‘Villa and Torres are at a spectacular level, can score a hell of a lot of goals and Fernando is playing as well as he does in the Premier League.’
The protagonists fit together well and cannot stop complimenting each other. El Niño says good things about Villa: ‘I think he is the best goal-scorer in Europe. And he is bound to top-score in this tournament.’ And Villa waxes lyrical about Torres. Rumours that they were at loggerheads have been quashed. Pepe Reina, the Liverpool and Spain goalkeeper, being a mutual friend, has helped bring them together. To celebrate getting through to the quarter-finals the three get together with their families for a
fabada
(an Asturian bean stew) in a Neustift restaurant.
The third game against Greece is a formality and Aragonés can rest 9 members of his usual starting line-up. Torres and Villa don’t play. Greece starts by getting ahead but Rubén de la Red and Dani Güiza put that right. In the quarter-finals on 22 June, in Vienna’s Ernst Happel stadium, the world champions, the
azzurri
, await.
Monday, pizza. We’ll polish it off like we did Italy on Sunday. That is the view of many Iberian people and their
media as they tip a wink at the gallery. They all say they are certain that Cannavaro and company won’t be any trouble at all. They are really confident about
Villa Maravilla
and ‘the Kid’ Torres, the big players, and about the old guy on the bench. They are certain that this time, thanks to Spain’s better crop of young players coming through, they will lift the curse of the quarter-finals – the customary burial ground of the
Roja
’s dreams of ultimate triumph. They swear that this time they will break their jinx with Italy: 88 years of defeat in official competitions. With one stroke they will avenge the slight of being knocked out in the quarter-finals of USA 94 – Luis Enrique ending up with a bloody nose after being elbowed by Mauro Tassotti.
But it doesn’t end there. For the eleven wearing the red shirt, Italy is the icing on the cake. Having sent the European champions (Greece) home, it’s all-out for the world champs. But these musings hide the fact that the Spaniards are scared that, once again, their great adventure might come a cropper. It will prove otherwise. After 120 minutes nobody has scored. Torres makes no odds in the 84 minutes he plays before being substituted by Güiza, and neither does Villa. Fate will be decided from the penalty spot. Saint Casillas keeps two out and Cesc Fabregas – the 21-year-old who had never taken one in his entire sporting career – makes no mistake. He nets for the final 4-3 score-line. ‘That’s where we won the European Championship,’ Torres recalls months afterwards. ‘I think we celebrated more that day than in the final.’ A final that would come around after a resounding 3-0 win against Guus Hiddink’s Russia. Torres tries everything and more to find the goal, but to no avail. He is replaced by Güiza, who keeps his rendezvous with the net.
On Sunday, 29 June, Spain will play their third final after 24 years out in the cold. David Villa won’t be in the game. In
the 30th minute of the semi-final, while lining up a free-kick he feels a stabbing pain from behind and five minutes later he drops to the ground, head between his legs, in floods of tears. His European Championship is over. Fernando Torres will play as a lone striker against Germany.