It couldn’t have been easy for Torres when he joined the Merseyside giants. He was, after all, the undoubted ‘king’ of Atlético; he’d been their youngest ever first team player, youngest ever captain and the talisman of both the team and its supporters almost since his debut in May, 2001. With a following of pop star like proportions, and playing for the team he loved, it was little surprise that he resisted a money-making move abroad for as long as he did.

The time was right, though, in July, 2007, for Fernando to move on. Atlético were in desperate need of money and Torres was beginning to look tired after carrying the burdens of responsibility for so long. July 4th, however, was a highly emotional day when he said his tearful goodbyes to the club he’d loved as a child and for whom he’d scored 91 goals.

It wasn’t straightforward, either, joining a club like liverpool. With a history of great strikers, and a desperation to re-establish themselves as credible championship contenders, Torres would have known that a ’settling in ‘ period would have been out of the question. He had to hit the ground running – and flat out, at that.

To his great credit, that was just what happened. Torres took to the pace of the Premier League game straight away – claiming that it suited his style of play much more than that of La Liga. After opening his league account against chelsea in August, he went on to find the net 24 times in his first season and, despite some niggling injuries, has kept on scoring ever since. At the time of writing, Torres has found the net 60 times for Liverpool in only 96 games – an incredible goals per game ratio that equals anything his illustrious predecessors managed.

Liverpool supporters, of course, think the world of their ‘kid’ – and not just because of the way he brushed Rio Ferdinand aside to score Liverpool’s first goal against manchester united recently. He clearly loves playing at Anfield and has developed a remarkable rapport with the fans, akin to that he had at Atlético. Not that he’s forgotten his former club, or its fans. After scoring the first Liverpool goal in a four nil Champions’ League demolition of Real Madrid last season, Fernando expressed the hope that the Atléti fans had enjoyed watching that match as much as he had enjoyed playing in it!

Let me finish with a little illustration of one reason why, perhaps, Fernando Torres is such a popular figure. In the summer of 2009, he married his long-term girlfriend Olalla in El Escorial, Madrid. This was no elaborate ‘Hello’ celebrity wedding, though. Rather, it was a quiet, dignified, family affair, held without fuss and extravagance. There was only one press photographer there – a local, who was then told by the groom to sell on whatever photographs he wanted to magazines and newspapers.

Apart from being fast, strong, brave and unselfish on the football pitch, Fernando Torres is one of football’s gentlemen off it! He also scored the winning goal for Spain in the final of the European Championships. What more could you want?

Written by Steve Yates. If you want tickets for Liverpool fixtures visit our website. As well as Liverpool you’ll find Premier League tickets for all the top clubs. This article may be reproduced in full providing that the author is acknowledged and the links in the resource box remain intact.