:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/64056266/143338406.jpg.0.jpg)
After 18 years in senior professional football, former Atlético Madrid, Liverpool, and Chelsea striker Fernando Torres has decided to retire from football.
The 35-year-old, who won just about everything there is to win, experiencing extreme highs and extreme lows along the way, had been seeing out his last days as a professional footballer at Sagan Tosu in the Japanese J-League — he even scored the goal that kept them up last season on the final matchday.
That was the 260th, and as it turns out, last goal of his career, which finishes with over 750 appearances — a 1-in-3 career ratio.
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
Once Chelsea’s record signing, Torres eventually turned into a source of amusement and even an object of ridicule, as he failed to live up to his £50m transfer fee (despite the Barcelona goal), scoring just 20 goals in 110 Premier League appearances for the Blues. He was one of the best in the Premier League for most of his 3.5 seasons at Anfield. He was one of the worst (and certainly most disappointing) in his 3.5 seasons at Stamford Bridge.
And yet, he still managed 45 goals and 35 assists in 172 appearances at Chelsea, and played crucial roles in our first ever Champions League and Europa League titles. He won a corner on May 19th, as we might remember with a smile and a win, but to help us get there, he also scored one of the most iconic goals not only in Chelsea, but football history.
Before Today's Game
— (@HazardSituation) March 6, 2017
Let's Re-live Torres's beautiful goal against Barcelona in 2012
Will be back with the line-ups as soon as they are up pic.twitter.com/QaUKH3A0dy
Torres, a true Atlético Madrid legend, also found success at the national team level, collecting over 100 caps and winning two European Championships, in 2008 and 2012, as well as the World Cup in 2010 during the Golden Age of Spanish football.
In fact, for ten days, between May 15, 2013 (Europa League final) and May 25, 2013 (Champions League final), Torres was the holder of the Champions League, the Europa League, the European Championship and the World Cup trophies, all at the same time!
If that's not a successful career, I don't know what is.
Congratulations, Fernando Torres on a career that most can only dream of and good luck in whatever you decide to do in the future.
Ed.note: I guess we’re not embedding all his misses because we’re going to be nice. Still, I would like to personally thank Nando for giving the world this moment, which was in reaction to this miss. They should’ve sent a poet.