A centurion with Spain, Torres played in three EUROs and three World Cups. He won two of the former to go with the 2010 World Cup triumph in South Africa, and finished his international career with 38 goals in 110 caps.

Torres scored double-digit goals four times with Atletico Madrid before earning a move to Liverpool, where he bagged 24 goals in his first Premier League season and finished third in the 2008 Ballon d’Or voting.

His production dipped massively during his fourth season in England, spent between Liverpool and Chelsea, but he notched 22 goals in all European competitions during the Blues’ tumultuous run out of the Champions League and onto the Europa League winners’ stage.

Torres was twice a member of the FIFPro World XI, and won the UCL and Europa League with Chelsea before claiming the UEL again with Atletico Madrid in 2015-16.

His return to Atletico Madrid had moments to be sure, including an 11-goal La Liga campaign in 2015-16. He also spent half a season on loan to AC Milan, where he scored once in 10 Serie A contests.

Here’s an interesting question: In which shirt will you always remember Torres? Is it the red of Spain, Liverpool, or Atletico Madrid? Or does his time of tumult in Chelsea jump to the front of the fray?

I have something very important to announce. After 18 exciting years, the time has come to put an end to my football career. Next Sunday, the 23rd at 10:00AM, local time in Japan, I will have a press conference in Tokyo to explain all the details.See you there. pic.twitter.com/WrKnvRTUIu

— Fernando Torres (@Torres) June 21, 2019

Follow @NicholasMendola

Liverpool’s Klopp reflects more on transfer fee explosion

AP Photo/Rui Vieira

By Nicholas MendolaJun 21, 2019, 8:15 AM EDT

3 Comments

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp can see now that he was wrong in saying he’d quit football when monster transfer fees become the norm.

He’s hinted the same in the past, and he didn’t quit when Liverpool spent as much money as anyone last year (it was clearly a hyperbolic statement anyway), but Klopp expounded on the new climate via Sky Sports.

[ MORE: Rabiot picks Juventus ]

Klopp says that the transfer budget of Bayern Munich when he was manager of Borussia Dortmund felt massive, but that players like his Virgil Van Dijk are being purchased for the cost of that entire budget less than a decade later.

“Maybe things were lost in translation but my point was, if we reach a point where football is solely about money and not football, then I’m leaving; and I still feel the same way about it.

“Liverpool is an ambitious club and if we didn’t spend the same amount of money as others, we wouldn’t be able to compete. Everybody’s splashing the cash, so we have to do the same.”

The European champion is getting there, approaching the point where he admits that the Reds are able to spend as much as any team not called Real Madrid, Manchester City, or Paris Saint-Germain.

We look forward to that, because it’s one of the last unlikable notions held by one of the best managers in the game. He’s a big boy at one of the big boys, and pretending anything different is silly.

Follow @NicholasMendola

Suarez: After UCL defeat to Liverpool, I wanted to ‘disappear from the world’

Getty Images

By Daniel KarellJun 17, 2019, 4:47 PM EDT

2 Comments

It’s been more than a month since Liverpool’s stunning 4-0 (and 4-3 on aggregate) victory over Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League semifinals, and Luis Suarez apparently still hasn’t gotten over the emotional scarring from his side’s defeat.

“After the elimination in the Champions (League), I wanted to disappear from the world,” Suarez told Fox Sports following Uruguay’s 4-0 rout of ten-man Ecuador in both team’s first match at the Copa America. “They were the worst days of my life and my career along with those from the 2014 World Cup.”

[READ: Man United now say Pogba will stay]

Suarez scored in Uruguay’s win over Ecuador as the Celeste look to win a record 16th Copa America title. It’s actually remarkable that Suarez is playing at all, just six weeks or so shy of major knee surgery to repair his meniscus. Barcelona allowed him to undergo the surgery after the Copa del Rey final and Suarez told reporters Sunday, via ESPN, that he lost 6.6 pounds while training to recover from his injury.

Interestingly, it’s also Suarez’s first appearance at a Copa America in eight years. How can that be? Suarez was serving a 12-month international suspension and thus missed the 2015 Copa America, following his biting incident with Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini that earned him not only a club suspension but also the international one, as Uruguay were bounced from the tournament in Brazil. In 2016, ahead of the Copa America Centenario, Suarez suffered a hamstring injury during Barcelona’s 2-0 win over Sevilla in the Copa del Rey final. Suarez was included in Uruguay’s 2016 Copa America squad but after two shock defeats, to Mexico and Venezuela, Suarez was left out as Uruguay crashed out of the tournament, his face filled with anguish stuck on the bench watching his team struggle on the pitch without him.

Now, Suarez, if he can put the memory of Anfield on May 7 behind him, Suarez could help a refreshed Uruguay side hit its stride back in Brazil, and potentially challenge for the continental title.