Fernando Torres biography

Fernando José Torres Sanz (20 March 1984) is a Spanish football player and star striker of Atlético de Madrid.

He was born in the Fuenlabrada neighbourhood, traditionally Real Madrid territory, but he grew up to wear the red and white stripes of Atlético Madrid. Nicknamed El Niño (The Kid) for his youthful face, Torres is a striker for the Spanish National Team and Atlético Madrid, being its current captain despite his age.

In 1999, Torres signed his first contract with the club and at the end of the 1999–2000 season he was part of the first team. His next success was at the European Under-16 Championship in England in 2001, where he finished as the Player of the Tournament en route to Spain's victory.

Torres made his debut for Atlético Madrid in the Vicente Calderón Stadium against Leganes and he scored his first goal for the club the following week, in a game against Albacete. 2002 saw Atlético Madrid returning to the first division of Spanish football. In his first season playing in the top division, Torres did not find the transition from second tier football too much of a hindrance as he scored 13 goals. Torres has been the top scorer for Atlético in La Liga for the past four seasons.

He is the youngest player to play for Atlético Madrid and the youngest to become captain (at age 19).

International career

In November of 2001 Torres played in the Under-17 World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago. In July of 2002, he played in the Under-19 European Championships in Norway, a tournament Spain won. Torres was both top scorer and Player of the Tournament. He made his debut for the Under-21 national team in 2003. On September 6, later that year, Torres made his debut for the senior national team against Portugal. His first goal for Spain came against Italy on April 28, 2004.

It was widely expected that a good performance for Spain at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany would boost Torres' already significant demand among major European clubs. At his first ever appearance in a World Cup finals match, Torres scored with a spectacular volley helping Spain to a win over Ukraine. In the second group match Spain rallied from a 0-1 deficit against Tunisia to win 3-1. Torres scored in the 76th minute for Spain to take the lead 2-1 and then again from a penalty kick in the 90th minute. He was subsequently given a much-needed rest in Spain's third group match against Saudi Arabia, entering the game only to substitute José Antonio Reyes in the 70th minute. Having managed to score three goals in the tournament, Torres was one of the leading goal scorers in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He was also the first player to score three goals in the tournament. Torres started the round of 16 matches against France, but after initially taking the lead, Spain went on to lose 1-3 and were knocked out of the tournament.

The Spanish national team coach, Luis Aragonés, remarked that he "never scores two goals the same" because of the way he seems to score a different goal every time he steps onto the pitch.