Not spectacular but victorious: Torres rekindles Atletico romance with derby win

Madrid: On January 6, according to the tradition, Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar, the gift-bearing Los Reyes Magos (The Three Wise Men), arrive from the Orient and pay a visit to every household in Spain. While most Spaniards were furnished with their gifts on Tuesday, half of the Spanish capital were forced to wait an extra day to receive the present they had all hoped for, the present they had waited for for seven and a half years. The present that came, of course, in the form of Fernando Torres. Those in the red-and-white half of Madrid had had a first glimpse of their new present on Sunday when Torres, who rejoined the Spanish league champions from AC Milan at the end of December, was presented at the Vicente Calderón in front of 45,000 adoring supporters, 2,741 days after he had first waved goodbye to them at the very same stadium. But like a child eager to tear off the wrapping paper and play with the toy inside the box, the Atléticos were desperate to see him back in competitive action – and what better way for him to make his comeback than against Real Madrid, the eternal rivals. The planets appeared to have aligned for the man affectionately known as El Niño (The Kid). [caption id=“attachment_2036415” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Torres got 60 minutes on his return to Atletico. Getty Images[/caption] Coach Diego Simeone, a man equally fêted among the Atleti fanbase, had delivered the news that they had all wanted to hear on Tuesday, that Torres would be a handed a starting berth against Real Madrid. Not only that but Simeone, a man wedded to cautious pragmatism, someone who certainly would not indulge sentiment for sentiment’s sake, extolled the forward’s virtues, explaining that he provides something that others in his squad don’t. Simeone, who had lined up alongside Torres during his own playing days, was not merely providing a favour to an old friend. Wednesday night, the evening Torres had yearned for during all of those dark days in Liverpool, London and Milan, finally arrived and despite failing to make any substantial contributions (he was caught offside three times, committed five fouls and lost the ball nine times), he earned a standing ovation and was subsequently serenaded when he was substituted off on the hour mark. Simeone was among the impressed, stating: “He transmits enthusiasm, energy. He is strong, he is quick but he needs time to develop an understanding with his team-mates. With the passage of minutes he felt better.” Torres finally ended his wretched Madrid derby record too, triumphing over the eternal rivals in the red-and-white shirt for the first time at the tenth time of asking. It is no exaggeration to state that Torres is an idol to those of an Atlético persuasion. After all, he is one of them himself, a boyhood fan turned superstar who conquered the world (and Europe too) and has now come home to, in his own words, “close a circle that started when I was ten years old”. The completion of the cycle was represented so wonderfully in visual form when Torres, who left Atlético the first time round as an unmarried 23-year-old, emerged on to the pitch at the Calderón for his presentation with his two young children, Nora and Leo, who both donned their father’s new old shirt. Having caught the rojiblanco fever at a young age due to the influence of his maternal grandfather Eulalio, Torres, who hails from Fuenlabrada, a small city 20km south of the Calderón, joined the club at the age of 11 having scored 55 goals during his first season playing 11-a-side football. His exploits at youth level lead to him being awarded his first senior contract at the age of 15. With Atletico going through difficult times at first-team level – they were relegated from the top flight at the end of the 1999/2000 season – supporters took solace in the development of a homegrown striker with prodigious talent and Torres was spoken of in hushed tones before his first-team debut, which took place in May 2001 when he was aged just 17. He helped fire them back into the top flight the next year and, back in La Liga, he ended up as their top scorer in each of the five following seasons. However, while Torres continued to flourish, garnering increasing attention from some of Europe’s leading lights, the club toiled and as time wore on, they became an increasingly inadequate stage for his talents. In the summer of 2007, Torres curtailed his 13-year Atleti romance and moved on to Liverpool. Describing the transfer, he said: “I needed a change and at my fingertips I had a project at the highest level that I could dream of. Atleti needed to live without Torres and Torres needed to leave Atleti.” The two were on different, divergent paths; Torres’ stock was in its ascendancy and Atlético were stuttering, in a constant state of flux and unsettlement. Fast-forward seven and a half years, and the shoe is very much on the other foot. Atlético, who have scaled scarcely believable heights during the three-year reign of Simeone, are the reigning Spanish champions and regarded, rightly, as one of Europe’s premier teams. Torres, on the other hand, has experienced one of the most baffling individual terminal declines in modern history. Over the last four years he has scored just 26 league goals –just two more than he racked up during his stellar first season at Liverpool in 2007/08. Perhaps, after the unfulfilled dreams and broken promises of the ruinous Hicks and Gillett era at Liverpool, he erred when joining Chelsea for a then British record fee of £50m in January 2011. In west London he was never afforded the affection and attention he had been showered with in Madrid and Merseyside. Chelsea, desperate to get rid of the striker, first loaned him to Milan earlier this season before transferring his registration to the Italian side (a move which precluded his return to Atletico) without even disclosing a fee. It was as if the club were shuffling their record transfer out of the back door in an attempt to cover up the aberration they had made, at some cost, in January 2011. Unloved and unwanted, Torres has once again found the sense of affection and belonging that helped him to become, albeit briefly, one of the world’s deadliest forwards. Irrespective of how he fares this time around, he will always be El Niño to the Caldéron faithful, the 30-year-old with the boy’s face who represents each and every one of them. “How nice it is to come home,” he remarked at his homecoming on Sunday. “Some day you will have to tell me what I have done to deserve all of this.” Some day, they will.