It´s not like I fancy writing in internet forums (not even in my team´s ones) but somehow I think I should do it here at least once, as I´ve been lurking around a few times since Fernando Torres started to play this season for your club and from what I´ve read, I think you will enjoy some things about this piece of written stuff. Sorry is this sounds too long, boring or redundant but somehow I felt I was due to post it.
Good evening to all LFC fans
I´m a Spanish 30 yrs old, supporter of Atlético de Madrid and I´ve been a season ticker holder since I was a teenager, travelled to support my team to dozens of stadiums both in 2nd Div and 1st Div (I know this is usual stuff in England, but it´s not the normal thing here in Spain, away teams normally lack of supporters or just have a small number of them most of the times). You couldn´t care less about this of course, the only reason I bring this into topic is to put Torres in a different context which you´ll probably appreciate to know about.
I was in the stands when El Niño played his first official match at Calderón coming off the bench against Leganés , I was there when he scored his first goal for us in his 2nd match (winning goal, away against Albacete coming off the bench) I was there when in his 3nd match he dribbled and sent off 2 hopeless defenders in a few minutes span (“who the f**k is this kid?” looked like those two were wondering while heading off their dressing room) against Sporting Gijón on a Sunday morning…. I can still remember all the astonished faces of my mates around me plus I will never forget the feeling he left on me after just a few hours on the pitch.
We, Atleti supporters, knew him long before he made his debut with us (he had been highly touted since winning under 16 Euro Champs with Spain) but after seeing him with the first team just for a couple of hours we already knew he was bound to become a very very special player. The last time I felt the same buzz in the crowd whenever a player had the ball was when Paulo Futre played for us in the late 80´s, early 90´s, but for many of us it was more like an unique thing in the sense that Fer had grown up in our stands, supporting our team as we were doing those days, basically a dream come true, one of us, but not another one, this time he was an awesome talented one, was defending our colours.
I was sure by that time he was going to give us back to 1st Div and that he would make us champions again and although I´ve been wrong here, there´s absolutely nothing I can regret about him concerning his behaviour (humble as f**k, eager to improve, supporting and defending his colours every time he felt it was necessary, accepted all the critics -even when they were undeserved many times- like a man should do), his displays (a wonderful football player with very unique qualities) and his attitude (he could have easily called it quits at many awful matches, but he was the man that fought the most and never saved a run or a tackle even knowing he was easily worth double the price of all his 10 team mates together).
It´s been a long time ago I lost the count of how many things Fer made for us, you can read loads of
in Spanish press (in this our country, I guess they didn´t like it too much when he said very early in his career he was born a “rojiblanco” and he would never ever wear Real´s shirt) or even from “so-called” Atleti fans about him being overrated (he has even been booed by some people in our Stadium and even at some Spain´s matches), non-prolific enough (ffs, I still can´t believe how much he did for us playing without quality team-mates, changing coaches here and there and without a proper gameplan most of the times –well, the game plan was “Long balls to Torres and let him do what he can against the whole defence” not exaggerating a bit, trust me -), and so on… all of it.There´s still a long way to go for him to be given a full credit in here, and he will probably never be recognized as he should in Spain, but after seeing him play every week during his entire career I´m sure we would be in 2nd Div hadn´t he played for us all these years. The things you´ve been grateful witnesses for these months, we´ve been lucky to be part of since he was 17 and the best thing is that as good as he is, he never made a conflict out of anything, (when we surely could have had plenty of reasons), he always supported managers, owners and team partners and he stayed humble against ferocious and undeserved critics and let his skills do the talking instead. It´s very true here in Spain we don´t know how to appreciate our jewells most of the times and Torres´ case is probably the most blatant one I can remember. Not for everyone of course, true Atleti fans will always be grateful to him and we know what he´s made of, class on and off the pitch.
I´m sure he wanted to triumph badly in our team as much as anyone of us, but after all these years of the same
from our owners, he decided it was time to go and told them to listen to LFC´s offer. He could have won more in other clubs, but he´s a special player (you´re starting to realize now and I´m sure you will fully understand it in 6 years´ time) and wanted a special club bc of his tradition and bc of everything that LFC´s carries behind. That´s a very rare condition in today´s football, needless to say. Therefore he decided to go and I simply can´t blame him at all, he gave as much as he could while he was here, and I even think from the bottom of my heart I also wanted him to prove the world how good he is, and the only way to do it was leaving, as this club is kidnapped by a bunch of thieves only looking forward to filling their pockets. So I understand his decision though I still think every goal he scores, and everything he does on a football pitch is a piece of our history that our owners have stolen us.Even with that sad feeling inside me (it will never go away, I´m pretty sure, it still hurts me seeing the guy around whom we should have built a great team again wearing a different shirt), I can´t avoid to smile and feel happy for him everytime he plays a good match for Liverpool FC for several reasons. First bc he deserves it after all the critics he has received and how humbly he has handled them, secondly bc from what I´ve read during these months in here, he has now a grateful group of supporters behind him (not the case in here, sad but true, he should almost kiss the ground where he walks on yet some people here are even happy he left the club, just unreal) and I must also confess it´s bc he represents for me a small piece of the “once-great Atleti I knew” history placed where it really deserves, among the greatest in the world.
All the best for you, thanks for supporting and appreciating Fernando´s character and skills and enjoy El Niño. Congrats, you´ve got a real gem there.
