The moment the Spain number ‘9’ steps out onto the Santiago Bernabeu pitch, a national record will be broken, and a new one will be put in its place. The owner of new record will be Fernando Torres; the youngest player in the history of Spanish football to make 60 appearances for his country.

Only 13 footballers have reached the 60 game milestone for Spain, and should Fernando Torres face Turkey in Madrid in Saturday’s World Cup qualifier, or play a part in the second game on Wednesday in Istanbul, he will not only join the ’60 High Club’, he will also become the youngest player to represent his country on 60 different occasions.

Following several successes in Spain’s youth teams, a 19 year old Fernando made his first team debut versus Portugal. Since pulling on the shirt for the first time, the forward has experienced several highs and lows.

The low point of his international career was his country’s early exit at the 2004 European Championships, the high point arriving last summer. Forty-four years after Spain’s last major international trophy, Fernando Torres scored the only goal in the final of Euro 2008 versus Germany.

The 25 year old striker is now one of the ‘veterans’ of Vicente Del Bosque’s squad, with only three current players ahead of him on the all-time appearance list: Iker Casillas, Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernandez.

Coach Iñaki Saez gave Fernando Torres his first chance of international football. The forward was then first choice for Spain’s next manager Luis Aragones, a view shared by the Red Fury’s current boss, Vicente del Bosque.

Since his debut six years ago, the striker has hit 18 goals in 59 games (45 games in the starting eleven and 14 as a substitute); Torres has defended the colours of Spain for an amazing 3,547 minutes.

The 60 game record will join an ever-growing list of achievements by the Spaniard for his country. At 21, Fernando became the second youngest player to captain Spain (only behind the legendary Samitier), and during his team’s qualification for the 2006 World Cup, Torres hit 7 goals, equalling the record set by Julio Salinas as the highest scoring player in qualifying group stages for football’s main event.


- Spain’s ’60 High Club’

1- Torres (25 years and 8 days)
2- Casillas (25 years and 29 days)
3- Raul (25 years and 275 days)
4- Butragueño (27 years and 248 days)
5- Xavi (28 years and 149 days)
6- Gordillo (28 years and 213 days)
7- Michel (28 years and 308 days)
8- Camacho (29 years and 9 days)
9- Zubizarreta (29 years and 92 days)
10- Puyol (30 years and 48 days)
11- Hierro (30 years and 48 days)
12- Victor Muñoz (31 years and 94 days)
13- Luis Enrique (32 years and 35 days)
14- Nadal (35 years and 314 days)


Photo: J.A. Sirvent