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Born in the Fuenlabrada neighbourhood, on the outskirts of Madrid, Fernando Jose Torres Sanz also known as El Nino (which means ‘The Kid’  in Spanish) grew to be a supporter of the red and white of Atlético Madrid, a side which he eventually joined at the young age of 17. Two years after making his professional debut he was appointed the captain of the team, something which anybody aged 19 would only dream of.

Atlético Madrid initially were in the Spanish Segunda Division (Division 2) where he scored seven goals in forty appearances a stat which by his standard right now is terrible. However his ability to score with any foot and his deadly accuracy in front of goal was something that Atlético knew was special. When Atlético Madrid got promoted to the First Division he scored a total of 91 goals in 243 appearances. This feat was enough for him to get a call for the Spanish National Side and also come in the radar of the scouts of the bigger European clubs.

His International debut was nothing to write home about when he missed a penalty but he more than made up for it scoring on a regular basis and a total goal tally of 22 in 67 appearances. Atlético were obviously interested in keeping one of their most valuable assets with them and thus did not allow negotiations with any of the clubs. However an absolute lack of trophies and a chance to join the bigger clubs prompted Torres to move on. It became quite inevitable that he was going to leave the Vicente Calderon when he was pictured wearing an armband with “You’ll Never Walk Alone” printed on the inside. A controversy which left the Atlético fans fuming with anger. With Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool fighting to sign the striker El Nino preferred to join Liverpool, where he is currently playing, wearing shirt number 9.He chose Liverpool because that was a side which he always admired as a school boy.

Pace is one of the first things that come to mind thinking of Torres, but it is by no means his only attribute; as a player he is also defined by his selflessness, guts, ambition and a will to win. Torres made his competitive debut for Liverpool against Aston Villa in a 2–1 win on 11 August 2007.Scoring his first goal against Chelsea in the 16th minute Fernando went on to score a hat trick against Reading with all the goals coming in the second half. He was named the Premier League’s player of the month for February. In the Champions League, Liverpool played Torres' former club Atlético Madrid in the Champions League at the Vicente Calderón, but his injury meant he missed out on the game. Atlético president, Enrique Cerezo, had even given him a VIP invitation to watch the game, but he declined this to recover his rehabilitation from injury in Merseyside. The little love that the Atlético fans had for him was lost after he snubbed them completely.

The Spanish national team coach, Luis Aragonés, remarked that he "never scores two goals the same", highlighting Fernando's versatility as a player. Moreover he was Spain's best player at the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany. One of Torres’ best goals came against Ukraine in the World Cup Finals where he scored a sublime volley which Spain won 4-0. He was named on the shortlist for the FIFA World Player of the Year award in December, 08 and eventually came in third place behind Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.