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career of Fernando Torres as striker.
    ‘Fernán loved being in goal because of his brother, Israel, who was one of the best indoor football goalkeepers I’ve ever seen. He wanted to be like him but after he got smashed in the face, he never went back in goal. I was responsible for what happened and I felt bad. I was scared of getting a huge telling-off from my parents and from his. But, to be honest, it upset me a lot to see him like that andI remember going several times with him to the dentist. However, in one sense, the incident turned out well for him,’ says 26-year-old Alexis Gómez, now a security guard and the person responsible for changing the role of one of the world’s most famous strikers.
    Fernando Torres is six years old. One of the series on TV is
Campeones: Oliver y Benji
(Champions: Oliver and Benji), the Spanish language version of a hugely popular Japanese comic-style cartoon series about the adventures of a Japanese youth football team. It features super striker Tsubasa Ozora (known in Spanish by the English-style name of Oliver Atton) and the invincible goalkeeper Genzo Wakabayashi (Benji Price in the Spanish version). It tells the story of these two friends from their childhood to becoming professional footballers and, eventually, to being called up to the Japanese national side. Their adventures take in their team-mates, the training, the matches and the tournaments, as well as spectacular moves and action that would be impossible to perform in real life. These are the words of the (Spanish) theme tune:
    They go with the ball at their feet
and nobody can stop them.
The stadium vibrates with emotion
to see both of them play.
    They only play to win
but always in a sporting way
and there’s nobody better
for the fans.
    Oliver, Benji
magicians on the ball.
Benji, Oliver,
dreams of being champions.
Benji, Oliver,
mad about football,
they have to score another goal.
    Words and music that a lot of Spanish children have not forgotten. Torres was also a big fan of Oliver and Benji. He identified with the stories of the two youngsters and imagined himself being a footballer like them, a goalkeeper who let nothing past and a striker who, in the gardens around his home, was getting good at scoring against his brother Israel.
    Torres first began to kick his brother’s football around at just two years old. His brother was the model to follow. During the summer, the Torres Sanz family spent their holidays at Gastar (a small village about 12 miles from Santiago de Compostela), with the paternal grandparents. It’s where they got used to playing football. He played in the vegetable patch together with a group of cousins and local friends. Uncle Bruno was the most enthusiastic footballing family member and he worked hard to teach them the basics of the game.
    And still in Galicia, several years later, during summer holidays on the beach at Estorde, he would spend his days playing never-ending matches. ‘Mini-World Cups’ with everyone against each other. He gets stronger. ‘He was fast, agile, versatile, with very sharp changes of pace. You didn’t see great displays of quality but strength and power, yes. When he played, he had a special touch and in the sand he ran like a madman,’ remembers Ramón Marcote.
    At five years old, he enters his first team, Parque (Park) 84. Parque is the name of the neighbourhood and 84 the year of birth for the boys playing in the team. The shirt is red and the event is the footballing marathon that takesplace at the Polideportivo (sports centre) in Fuenlabrada. It is a local trophy but a real occasion for any child. Amongst the spectators are parents, friends, colleagues and schoolmates. No one is bothered that the matches take the form of piles of kids – around fifteen to twenty – all kicking the ball in whatever way they could. They have a good time and they get to feel like real soccer stars and no one minds that the team has been put together just for the event. Two