416: Fernando Torres, Liverpool, Topps Match Attax 2022/23 - UEFA

Just before Christmas my sister and I met up for a long overdue (overpriced) pint and a catch up and got on to talking about the perils of the annual workplace Secret Santa. Not only has rampant inflation meant that a reasonable limit leaves you with very few options but, if the net is cast too wide, you more often than not end up with a questionable judgement on your character by someone you’ve never actually spoken to. I have to confess that I only remembered my small office’s once I had parked the car at work on the day of our Christmas do so our head of Computer Science ended up with a bag of cans from the offie. Thankfully Catherine Perry is far more thoughtful and I got two nice books and a pack of Match Attax cards. Once open I gave her a choice of footballers for a post and she settled on today’s subject based on her own happy memories of living and working in Madrid and said player’s boyish good looks. Hope this does the trick Pezza.

Going back to questionable judgements of character a recent Football365 article described Fernando Torres as the sixth worst January transfer deal in Premier League history. At the start of 2011 Chelsea shelled out a then British record fee of £50m to bring the Spanish striker to Stamford Bridge from Liverpool. In just over three seasons at Anfield he had scored 81 goals in 142 appearances, finished as the Reds’ top scorer twice and won both the 2008 European Championships and 2010 World Cup with Spain. He became the fastest Liverpool player to reach fifty league goals and the Reds’ first player to score over twenty league goals in a season since Robbie Fowler back in 1995/96. His departure came as something of a shock on Merseyside but did at least free up the funds for Liverpool to bring in not just one but two strikers in the forms of Andy Carroll and a bitey racist bloke who eventually buggered off to Barcelona.

Torres’ early days at Chelsea were far from joyous. His debut ended in a 1-0 loss to his previous employees and it took him 903 minutes to notch his first goal for the Blues in a 3-0 win over bottom club West Ham United. It was his only strike during his first season at Stamford Bridge and he made an inauspicious start to the 2011/12 campaign when, despite netting a consolation goal, he joined Ronny Rosenthal and Ade Akinbiyi in the annals of awful Premier League misses when he struck wide after rounding David de Gea during a 3-1 defeat to Manchester United in September. Although he responded with an early goal in his next game against Swansea City he was sent off for a rash challenge just ten minutes later and did not score again in the league until March. Torres did have more luck in front of goal in the cup competitions with key strikes in the Blues’ successful FA Cup and Champions League runs including a last minute equaliser against Barcelona which secured their place in the final of the latter and caused Gary Neville to make some truly extraordinary noises in the commentary box. Back on international duty for Euro 2012 he finished as the tournament’s top scorer despite Spain’s aversion to playing a natural striker to help secure La Roja’s third consecutive international trophy.

Although never quite matching his goalscoring exploits at Liverpool Torres did become the first player to score in seven different competitions in one campaign during the 2012/13 season as Chelsea emerged as Europa League winners. The return of Jose Mourinho, Torres’ fifth manager during his time at Chelsea, saw the Blues reach the Champions League’ semi-finals and finish third in the Premier League while the striker provided eleven goals including the winner on the last day of the 2013/14 season against Cardiff City. This proved to be his last for the club as he spent the next two campaigns on loan first at AC Milan and then at his boyhood club Atletico Madrid. He agreed a permanent move in 2016 and helped them to Europa League victory in his final season in 2017/18. After two seasons with Japanese side Sagan Tosu he called time on a nineteen-year professional career with 263 goals in 768 club appearances to go alongside 38 in 110 international caps. 

The card above for Fernando Torres is something of an oddity. While he undoubtedly enjoyed his most fruitful seasons in front of goal at Liverpool he didn’t pick up a single piece of silverware. His desire for such accolades is said to have prompted his move to Chelsea and a Champions League, FA Cup and Europa League suggest he may have made the right choice. On his debut for the Blues his former fans displayed a banner stating “He Who Betrays Will Always Walk Alone” and chanted “you should have stayed at a big club” at him while he sat disconsolately on the bench as Raul Meireles netted the winner for Liverpool. Maybe a Liverpool ‘Legend’ is too strong a word for someone who left under a cloud but it is similarly misguided to describe him as one of the worst January signings in history. It goes to show the footballing world isn’t always the most accurate judge of character. Lord knows what the poor bugger ended up with in his clubs’ Secret Santas.