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responsible people and good workers. Pepe doesn’t share this view and today describes his son as ‘an intelligent person, with a head for taking in information and different situations, capable of withstanding difficult moments and enjoying the good ones. Apart from his physical and technical qualities, he’s very strong mentally, has an absolute belief in what he can achieve, has always wanted to get on and improve and this has allowed him to get where he is.’
    The youngster also shows these qualities at school. He gets on well, has good marks, behaves well, is very determined and has a great capacity for concentration. ‘I remember a play we put on at the school. His part was to recite a poem about solidarity,’ remembers Alicia, the language teacher at the Colegio Público Francisco de Quevedo school. ‘He learned it by heart and recited it perfectly.’ All in all, a clever student, but not one who’s averse to a bit of cheating. Once, the teacher catches him red-handed while he’s copying but doesn’t punish him and doesn’t pull him out of the exam. The other students are angry and protest.‘If you don’t take him out, then we’ll all start cheating,’ they say. But it’s difficult to punish that angel face, which looks as if it would never hurt a fly. His classmates remember …
    The end of term and the beginning of summer. The Torres Sanz family spend the holidays in the father’s home village. There are long weeks with his grandparents, uncles and aunts, his brother and sister, his friends in the village, months of adventure amongst the fields and vegetable gardens. Until his parents discover the seaside town of Cee in Galicia. It was by chance that they passed by there, they liked the place, found a small apartment on the beach and bought it. Fernando is then eight years old and for the following summers this will be his holiday destination. He makes new friends and acquaintances – and one of those will have a fundamental impact on his life. Because on this very beach, the thin, blond, shy lad falls in with a group of youngsters his own age, and meets Olalla Domínguez Liste, who is from the San Lázaro district of Santiago de Compostela and keen on figure skating. She is fifteen and he is seventeen. They meet, get to know each other, and fall in love. From then on, they are never apart. But this story is still to come. For the moment, Fernando is a lad who grows up, as his father says, in a ‘normal family’ surrounded by the love of his parents and paternal grandparents as well as those of his mother, Eulalio and Paz, who live not far away from Madrid in Valdeavero. A boy who grows up learning what it means to make sacrifices, to work hard, ‘to appreciate the important things and to understand,’ as José Torres always says, ‘what are the true values of life.’
    And to enjoy his football …

Chapter 6
Leader of the gang
    Five or six o’clock on a Saturday afternoon – a good time for a kick-around with the usual gang. Fernán, as his friends call him, puts himself in the goal that has been created between a wall and a mound of clothes. The game is non-stop, the boys create a huge dust cloud as they tear around after each other. The rules – even for those who want to use them – are virtually ignored. Then a pass is threaded through to Alexis, who finds the ball at his feet. Without hesitating, he shoots hard, very hard. The ball catches Torres full in the face and his mouth fills with blood. He bursts into tears and the game is over. His friends gather round and take him, running, back home to his mother, Flori. It’s a big shock for them all. He’s missing two front teeth.
    This is the point where Fernando Torres’ goalkeeping career ends. His brother, Israel, and his mother ban him from playing between the posts on the cement pitch. He himself also understands that maybe it’s better to try putting the ball into the net rather than trying to keep it out. And so begins the