SOCCER Transfer news:Fernando Torres is used to the weight of expectation on his shoulders. He joined Atletico Madrid, his boyhood team, at 11, rejected an offer from Real Madrid at 12, had a €3 million buy-out clause at 15, made his debut at 17, captained the club at 19 and won his first cap before he was 20.
He alone has carried the hopes of one of Spain's biggest clubs for seven long years - and still he is only 23. Now he has to pull on the number nine shirt worn by the man the Kop called God and prove that Liverpool's manager is not insane.
By splashing out £27 million (€40 million) on Torres, Rafael Benitez has almost doubled the amount spent on Liverpool's previous record signing, Djibril Cisse, making "The Kid" the most expensive Spaniard ever.
It is a gamble, one on which Benitez's legacy, and his reputation, may well rest; one which, at three times the fee, will have to pay far greater dividends than the last time Benitez brought a centre forward called Fernando to Anfield.
Morientes came with a big reputation and departed having scored eight league goals in 41 league games.
For Torres, the pressure is on.
On the face of it, he has the credentials to rise to the challenge. He had scored 64 goals before he was 13 and got another 68 over the next two seasons, breaking a club record. At 14 he won the Nike Cup, being named the best under-15 player in Europe, at 16 he led Atletico to the national juvenile league, and then he was the leading scorer and player of the tournament as Spain won the under-16 European Championship, hitting the winner in the final. He repeated the feat in the under-19 championship.
When he made his Atletico debut it was on the orders of the chairman, Miguel Angel Gil Marin, responding to the restlessness of fans desperate to see the player about whom they had heard so much, the saviour who would lead them out of the second division - or "hell" as the former owner Jesus Gil dubbed it.
The pressure did not faze Torres and in his second match, against Albacete, he came on and changed the game, provoking two sendings-off and scoring the winner.
Since Atletico's return to the first division in 2002 he has been their top scorer every season. He has scored 75 times in 173 games, twice finishing as La Liga's top-scoring Spaniard, never failing to get into double figures. Over the past four seasons only Samuel Eto'o and David Villa have scored more league goals.
And yet, there have always been doubts. Torres divides Spain. He is an idol, his raw talent unquestionable, but for some he almost became a figure of fun as well, capable of combining the most brilliant goals with the most incredible misses.
When Spain drew 0-0 with Russia in a pre-World Cup friendly he was booed by Spain fans. On one occasion he got the ball, spun his marker, played a quick one-two, dashed clear leaving his defender for dead . . . and put the ball wide. It was, they said, classic Torres.
However, freed from an underachieving chaotic club where he has had seven managers and no support, where he has been burdened with too much too young, where he has, by his own admission, grown weary, maybe the brilliant player can be released - and the goals will follow.
Atletico de Madrid announced they had agreed to sell Torres to Liverpool yesterday along with a statement confirming that Luis Garcia had left the English club for Atletico - where he spent the 2002-03 season on loan - for an undisclosed sum.
Guardian Service
