Every time a football season draws to a close, it seems age takes another legend from the top tier of the beautiful game. The likes of Beckham and Ronaldinho are long gone, and with Xavi and Zlatan following them it's been hard for football fans.
Now, the departure of Andres Iniesta from Barcelona seems to be the unwanted cherry on top of the cake. The player decided to leave the Camp Nou and football mourned – but there was also another departure going on – Fernando Torres left Atletico Madrid for the second and final time.
Atleti fans were inconsolable, as were the players, Diego Simeone and the forward himself. Torres is Atleti. The young boy who defied his peers and subjected himself to ridicule at school, wearing his Atleti strip when everyone else wore Real Madrid kits, who stuck with them and became their youngest ever captain, leading them from the wilderness and a year in purgatory back to the top flight of Spanish football – finally outgrowing the club after 214 games and 82 goals.
So much so that Atleti fans supported him leaving and understood why he had to go in order to further his career. The club were not the outfit they were upon Torres' return – Diego Simeone is one of the most influential people in the history of the club, if not the most, but when Torres left, he did so as a hero and not a villain.
His time at Liverpool further elevated him into the superstar everyone talked about – scoring 65 goals in 102 games and being at the top of world football's list for strikers. Then came another move – and one where he certainly didn’t leave a hero. In a January that neither Liverpool nor Chelsea fans look back on with much fondness, Torres made the big money move to Stamford Bridge and Andy Carroll went to Liverpool for an extortionate amount of money at that time, especially considering his CV was nothing close to that of Torres who only cost £15 million more.
The move to Chelsea seemed a disaster, with the player struggling to get out of the shadow of Didier Drogba and frankly being another Shevchenko. Torres struggled badly and became a laughing stock. Memes of 'dear diary, today I failed to score again' did the rounds, as did many more.
One of the Chelsea managers Torres encountered – because of course, being Chelsea, you're going to go through quite an amount in a five year period – Carlo Ancelotti, constantly denied he was an unwanted signing, but with Ancelotti getting the best from Drogba and nothing from Torres, he lost his job, much like Mourinho with Sheva some years earlier. It's almost like an owner of a club shouldn't buy players because he likes them as a person, and actually listen to their manager, but what do I, a mere mortal know.
A return of 20 goals in 110 games was nowhere near what Chelsea wanted or needed – yet there were trophies for Torres and while he might have a tough time explaining how he helped Chelsea win some of them, the greatest trophy of them all was in some part because of Torres.
The player scored the infamous goal at the Camp Nou against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final that produced sounds from Gary Neville that even his wife hadn't heard, and Chelsea went on to win the final as well.
A spell at AC Milan came in 2015, and while it wasn't the set your world on fire stuff, it removed Torres from the constant pressure and vitriol at Chelsea. The Chelsea fans, for their part, had a good relationship with Torres, and it was clear the player didn't give up – things just didn't click for him, and once the confidence and form go, with that price tag, it can be hard to bounce back, especially at a club who already have an untouchable number nine – or 11 in Drogba's case – and chop and change managers so much.
The return to Atleti was seen as a Hail Mary by some, a pity act from a club who Torres gave so much to – but Diego Simeone isn't a man to suffer fools, and made it clear Torres wasn't there to be a cheerleader or mascot, he was there to give something to the team, both on the field and in the dressing room, and he did.
It was a new lease of life for Torres, who has always been loved deeply by Atleti fans, but had a strange relationship with other sets of fans, loved by Liverpool fans and then both hated and mocked, only to now be looked back on fondly again, and Chelsea fans ambivalent towards him until the cult goal against Barcelona.
As is so often the case, Torres is remembered with more love and affection now by the world's collective football fans than he was before he left Atleti – where he of course crowned his time at the club with the Europa League trophy, his first ever at the club – and was understandably emotional and overcome both on the field and at the celebrations.
After his final game, he bid the fans a final farewell, thanking them for so much and apologising for giving so little. Well, sorry Nando, but the fans would disagree with you there. You gave them everything, and they know it.
