Chelsea striker Fernando Torres could have been a goalkeeper rather than one of the world’s deadliest strikers… but his mum wouldn’t let him.

The former Atletico Madrid and Liverpool goal-getter has scored more than 200 goals for club and country since making his senior debut in 2001, netting in the final of the 2008 European Championships to end Spain’s 44-year wait for an international tournament success.

However, the 27-year-old has revealed that he could have been plying his trade at the opposite end of the pitch, only for an unfortunate accident – and insistent mother – to prematurely end any hopes he harboured of donning the gloves long-term.

“My brother was a keeper and I used to enjoy playing with him in the street. One day the ball knocked my front teeth out and my mum wouldn’t let me play in goal anymore,” he says in the November 2011 issue of FourFourTwo, out now.

“I still enjoy going between the sticks in training and when we’re allowed to choose our own positions that’s often where I head. I like people shooting at me and trying to stop as many as I can.”



Torres has not enjoyed the start he would have hoped for following his British record £50 million move from Liverpool to Chelsea in January, scoring just three goals in 20 league outings.

But, despite a painful miss against Manchester United at Old Trafford, the Spaniard is beginning to show signs of his ‘old’ self – a result of Torres finally settling down to London life following an unexpectedly turbulent transfer from the North West.

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Posted: at 7-10-2011 11:35 AM (12 years ago) | Gistmaniac

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