Read Online Torres: An Intimate Portrait of the Kid Who Became King by Luca Caioli - Free Book Online Page B

sharp, skilled, very calm in front of goal and, above all, a sponge – he liked to learn.’
    Calvo had in his care a line-up that, apart from Torres, could boast players like Manu Del Moral, now at Getafe, Francisco Molinero, today at Real Mallorca, Fernando Usero, now at Elche, and Sergio Torrers who will later win the Under-16 European championship with Fernando. Elements that made for a great season. The key moment is the Nike Under-14 World Club Cup, which took place in May 1999 in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The Atlético Cadete junior team has won the right to play in the prestigious European tournament after first coming through a national competition. The participants are: Real Madrid, Roma, Reggiana (Italy), Belenenses (Portugal), LASK (Austria), Amiens (France), LASK (Austria), Amiens (France), Mouscron (Belgium), B 93 (Denmark) St Joseph’s Boys (Ireland), Servette (Switzerland), Symonds Green (England), KFUM Oslo (Norway), Etzella (Luxembourg), PSV (Netherlands), Hammarby (Sweden), Inter Turku (Finland), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Heart of Midlothian (Scotland).
    Before the final phase, they take part in a four-sided event with Porto, PSV and Andorra. ‘Against our near-neighbours, Andorra, we won 11-1 but we played poorly, without commitment, without bite,’ remembers Calvo. ‘So everyone, and Fernando in particular, was read the riot act before the final against PSV. They were told that this would not do and that they had to do better. He went out onto the pitch really wanting to show me that he didn’t merit what I’d said. So in one of the first moves, he swerved past five opponents, then went round the keeper, stopped the ball on the goal line, looked over to the dugout and blasted a shot into the goal.’
    In the quarter-finals at the Reggio Emilia tournament, the Atlético youngsters once again come up against PSV. The Dutch are dismissed with a decisive 3-0 scoreline. And Fernando repeated the same trick – in the first move of the match, he gets past three opponents, nutmegs the fourth and lobs the keeper to put them in the lead. The semi-final sees them up against Real Madrid, a Spanish city derby in Italy. A difficult contest against the title-holders, who had disposed of Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-finals. The 2-0 final scoreline leaves no doubts, however, as to the title pretensions of Atlético, who will now meet host side Reggiana in the final. Molinero scored in the eighth minute and it stays at 1-0 until the final whistle. It is the first important title – the first European Cup – that Fernando, the captain, holds aloft.
    He is chosen as the best player of the tournament, a recognition that, together with his goals and his movement off the ball, attracts the attention of several European clubs. ‘Arsenal made an offer to Fernando’s father and Barcelona and Milan were also keen. So much so that the club decided to offer him his first professional contract,’ explains Calvo. At fifteen years of age, Torres signs the contract. It’s not worth as much as Arsenal were offering but he’s happy. He is playing for the team he loves. Football, for him, begins to be more than just a hobby, even if he does not yet realise that it will be his life and his profession. That is still some years ahead.
    Meanwhile, he moves up from the
Cadete
team to the
Juvenil
– another way of saying he jumped three years in one go. He meets Abraham García – the last coach he would have in the junior teams and a key figure in his career development – and Ignacio Aznar Torrente, better known as ‘Nacho’, with whom he formed an attacking strike duo. ‘We understood each other well. We knew, without speaking, where the other was on the pitch at any given moment,’ recalls Aznar, who today plays at Club Deportivos Leganés in Group II of the Spanish Second Division B. ‘Fer was a model of power, ability to score with headers, movement and finishing in front of goal. We became a pair capable of scoring