Fernando Torres: A lifetime in red and white

'El Nino's' footballing career, which will come to an end as the season draws to a close, began on the pitches of the Ernesto Cotorruelo sports centre, in the Madrid district of Carabanchel.

It was there that Fernando Torres progressed from previous selections at Parque de las Cruces in South Madrid, where Atletico coaches Victor Peligro and Pedro del Mazo selected promising players from a pool of 500 young, aspiring footballers.

According to Manuel Brinas, former club employee and whom Torres hails as his 'discoverer': ''The following week, those who had been selected, around 40 or 50, were sent to Cotorruelo and Manulo Rangel graded and evaluated whilst I wandered around taking notes.'' 

Brinas had already heard of the little blond boy with freckles, after an acquaintance from a nearby town had told him about 'the boy wonder', but noted: ''When he arrived, he caught my attention.''

''I saw him play and I said: 'You are made to be an Atletico Madrid player, and you will play for Atleti.'' However, it was Rangel who made the first evalution telling Brinas that he was going to mark Torres as a ''ten plus one''. 

After that, Torres entered into the Atletico youth academy, and progressed through the junior ranks until he caught the attention of coach Abraham Garcia whilst making the jump from junior football to a more demanding category.

Garcia told 'EFE': ''Despite his age, he had a spectacular physicality that meant, at a physical level, he could tolerate the strain of training with the older boys. He was a star in the making.''

''From a young age, he was tremendous, it was beautiful to watch. Football was not as physical as it is now, with players who are physically great but technically good. When Fernando started football it was more leisurely, but he injected a change of tempo and brutal power.''

Garcia added that his role at that point was more of an educator to Torres than a coach. For his part, the striker told 'EFE': ''Abraham taught me not to worry about my faults, but to enhance my strengths, if you are fast, you can be faster, improve your speed.''

It was not long before Torres' career exploded onto the first-team scene. The opportunity to join the first-team, in the Spanish second division, came at the end of May in 2001, and in the same week he made his debut for the squad against Leganes on 27th May.

Garcia can recall his talk with a young Fernando almost perfectly as he told the youngster that his chance had arrived. He said: ''I told him that his opportunity had come and that now he had to go forward, stop thinking he was a youth and starting believing that he was part of the first team.''

The rest, as they say, is history. Torres made his first outing against Leganes and followed it up with his first goal for Atletico a week later against Albacete. 

What followed next was promotion to the top-tier, a few hard years in La Liga, a successful move to the Premier League, a taste of glory in the 2010 World Cup with Spain, and finally a return to Atletico where Torres will bow out having clinched the Europa League title this season.