Soccer: Fernando Torres is thrilled he will have a role to play for Spain at Euro 2012 after a difficult first full season at Chelsea. The former Liverpool striker scored just 11 goals in 48 appearances for the Londoners and had been dropped from Vicente del Bosque's last Spain squad in February.
But he ended the season with two medals as Chelsea stormed to an FA Cup and Champions League double. And the 28-year-old is now looking to add another trophy as Spain attempt to win a third consecutive major international tournament.
Torres told the Spanish Football Federation’s website: “To arrive here today with the national team has been very difficult and will get ever more so. It has been a very hard season, but it couldn’t have ended better with the FA Cup and Champions League victories.
“That has been completed with a call to the national team and that is the reason why it couldn’t have been a better end to the season. There are 19 players that were in the World Cup squad and that says we have a firm, compact group without any weaknesses. The team works well and therefore there are very few reasons to change.”
About the task to follow up European Championship and World Cup wins with another European title, Torres said: “It is something that no one has ever achieved in football, this makes you realise the importance and how difficult it is. Perhaps we can be the first, this is the reason we are here and will do everything we can to achieve it.”
Despite recognising this is a golden age for the Spain national side, Torres does not believe the current generation is irreplaceable. “The new players that have come in will bring new things that the group didn’t have and they will make the team more complete and well-armed,” he said.
“It is often said that young players are for the future, but this squad has demonstrated that it has present and future because many young players are included. Since the first day they have played as if they have been with us their whole lives. You look at the players that are going with the under-21s, those that will compete in London in the Olympics and they are players of an incredible level.
“In Spain we should be calm because the upcoming generations are coming strong.”
Torres reflected on his goal in the Euro 2008 final four years ago against Germany, which started his country’s incredible run of success after so many years of disappointment at international level. “At the end of your career these are the moments you remember and I am proud,” he said.
“I have the fortune to score such an important goal because I have been in a great generation of footballers that have granted me the possibility of playing in the final. It was a turning point. To pass through the barrier of the quarter-finals and lift the trophy was the start of what today this team is: world champions.”
