On Wednesday the Spaniard was officially named the Liverpool Echo Merseyside Sports Personality of the Year for 2008. During the calendar year the striker broke several club and league records on his way to an impressive 23 goals for the Reds in 35 appearances. The forward, who was overjoyed at receiving the award, regards the accolade as a great personal honour. “It’s a privilege for me to receive this trophy because I know that it is a very important award for the people of this city and for the fans. When you look at the list of previous winners it is really special to have my name alongside theirs because everyone knows what people like Kenny Dalglish, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher mean to this club and to this city. They have all won it before me so to win such a special award after just two years at Liverpool and to be in the thoughts of many people gives me a really special feeling.”

Fernando succeeds Everton’s Mikel Arteta to win Liverpool Echo Merseyside Sports Personality of the Year. “I know that Mikel won it last year because when I have been to his house I have seen the big trophy in his living room. Now I am going to take the trophy to my own house and I hope to be able to win it again in the future because that would mean a lot to me.”

This season Liverpool pushed Manchester United all the way for the Premier League crown. The Reds even beat the record number of points held by a team finishing in second place; and next year Torres hopes that the Merseysiders can go one step further. “I came to Liverpool to win trophies and going two seasons without winning any is a long time for a club like Liverpool. The next one needs to be coming soon because we want to win for ourselves, for the club and for the fans. For me the team has improved over the last year and we are much closer to United than we were. We managed to get more points than any other Liverpool team since the Premier League began and I don't think there is any question that the team is improving and the club is improving. Now hopefully we will be able to keep the good players that we have here and also make some good signings in the summer because that would be fantastic for us.”

The striker, who hit his 50th Liverpool goal in Sunday’s 3-1 win at home to Tottenham, was happy with his achievement. “It’s not easy to score 50 goals, especially when you are just in your second season at a club so I am very proud that I have done this. But it is thanks to my team mates I have done this because they create my chances and support me every week. Now I want to keep scoring. I have my first 50 and this makes me really happy but now I want the next 50.”

Fernando hopes to remain injury-free next season as he looks to improve on this year. “The main thing for me now is to forget the injuries and then if I can play every game during the coming campaign it will be even better for me.”


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