Fernando Torres: Atlético de Madrid B Manager
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Red Star One
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at the moment, there are way more former legendary midfielders and defenders who turned into elite managers, rather than forwards (I can only think of Inzaghi), so based on this absolutely useless anecdotal evidence, I think he will flop hard.
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What a terrifying striker he was in his prime, which was short lived.
It wasn't that short if you include his impressive years in Spain which the Premier League fans always seem to ignore.
His prime basically already started in 2002 when he was 18 and was consistently scoring loads of goals for a struggling midtable Atletico Madrid team.
From 2002 to 2007 Torres scored 13, 19, 16, 13 and 14 league goals for Atletico teams that finished 12th, 7th, 11th, 10th and 7th in the league in those respective seasons.
Those are very impressive numbers given the circumstances. Back then Atletico was nowhere near the team it is today as they were relegated to second division in 2000. They came back in 2002 but the club was still struggling financially and a teenage Torres basically had to carry the team. Those were some of the worst Atletico teams I've seen and without Torres they'd be fighting against relegation in most of those seasons. The goals he was scoring were great too, his speed, dribbling and control of the ball was unreal. Young Torres was basically the closest we've had to Brazilian Ronaldo in terms of a striker breaking unto the scene this young. He put the world on notice when he went to Liverpool, but he was already on this level in Spain for a while, just wasn't at a team where he could score such numbers. His prime then ended by the end of the decade due to injuries, but he already had 8 incredible seasons by then, which is more than most players could claim. And he still went on to literally win everything that there is to win in football, even past his prime.
To my knowledge, he's still the only player to this day who has won the WC, the Euro, the CL and the Europa League, completing the "big four" of international trophies for club and country.
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It wasn't that short if you include his impressive years in Spain which the Premier League fans always seem to ignore.
His prime basically already started in 2002 when he was 18 and was consistently scoring loads of goals for a struggling midtable Atletico Madrid team.
From 2002 to 2007 Torres scored 13, 19, 16, 13 and 14 league goals for Atletico teams that finished 12th, 7th, 11th, 10th and 7th in the league in those respective seasons.
Those are very impressive numbers given the circumstances. Back then Atletico was nowhere near the team it is today as they were relegated to second division in 2000. They came back in 2002 but the club was still struggling financially and a teenage Torres basically had to carry the team. Those were some of the worst Atletico teams I've seen and without Torres they'd be fighting against relegation in most of those seasons. The goals he was scoring were great too, his speed, dribbling and control of the ball was unreal. Young Torres was basically the closest we've had to Brazilian Ronaldo in terms of a striker breaking unto the scene this young. He put the world on notice when he went to Liverpool, but he was already on this level in Spain for a while, just wasn't at a team where he could score such numbers. His prime then ended by the end of the decade due to injuries, but he already had 8 incredible seasons by then, which is more than most players could claim.
Those numbers range from decent to good. They are not very impressive, much less incredible. Scoring a dozen of goals per season for a mid-table team is not the great feat you seem to think it is. Hasselbaink scored 24 goals the season Atletico were relegated. Joselu scored 16 goals for relegated Espanyol last season. Sorloth scored 23 goals for mid-table Villareal this season. Unheralded strikers like Budimir, En-Nesyri and Unal have scored 10-15 goals for mid-table teams on multiple occasions. And then Iago Aspas has produced double-digit goal tallies in the league each season for almost a decade for Celta.
And he still went on to literally win everything that there is to win in football, even past his prime.
No. He never won a single league title in his whole career. Never won la Copa del Rey, Supercopa, FIFA Club WC, etc. He won nothing with Atletico in fact, except the Europa League, where he was more or less just a mascot by that point.
To my knowledge, he's still the only player to this day who has won the WC, the Euro, the CL and the Europa League, completing the "big four" of international trophies for club and country.
Those trophies look good on paper, however his contribution was minimal in the WC and in the CL.
WC: 0 goal. Bench in the final and in the semis.
CL: 1 goal in the knock-out rounds (at 90+1 when the game was almost over). Bench in the final and in the semis.
He also didn't play in the final of the only domestic trophy he ever won (FA Cup with Chelsea).
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