R.M: Hello and Good Afternoon Fernando, how are you?
F.T: Hi, good evening, I’m fine thanks.
J.R.M: What did you do yesterday after the game? Did you swap shirts with anyone?
F.T: Yeah, with Iker, because we’re mates, nothing to do with the match.
J.R.M: Did Iker want it for himself or had somebody asked him to get it?
F.T: I don’t know, we’ve swapped shirts before.
J.R.M: Who were you with when you got changed after the game, and who did you talk to about the match?
F.T: I didn’t talk about the game with anyone, I don’t like to, whether the result has been good or bad.
J.R.M: But don’t you say anything to anybody when you walk into the changing room, not even to your team-mates?
F.T: There was a great feeling of impotence because we’d let the game slip from our grasp, people felt hurt and sad. The faces you could see in the changing rooms were the same faces you saw in the stands- the same faces you could see in training this morning. But what everyone feels is that we’ve got to move on from this.
J.R.M: After the game were there a lot of media waiting to see what you had to say? Did you feel afraid to walk out there? Do the questions hurt?
F.T: No, they don’t hurt. I’ve only been in this game a few years but nonetheless I’m used to it by now. I know that when things don’t work out the same faces always pop up- the faces that have always had to shut up by the end of the season.
J.R.M: Does the press hurt you feelings?
F.T: No, I know the way things are. The first time I had to hear people criticizing me I learnt what the world of football is really like. That was back in the Second Division. Back then I realized that football isn’t the way you imagine it’s going to be- in football, when things are going well everyone wants to be your friend, but when things take a down turn the knives come out. Furthermore there are people who love to see sports players fail- but at the end of each season the numbers speak for themselves, and they’ve all got to shut up. Fortunately, so far in my career all my critics have had to eat their words by the time the end of a season has rolled around. J.R.M: Which is stronger in you: patience or memory?
F.T: Both are vital. Patience because if you have faith in yourself you know that things will come right and memory to remember the good times and the bad times.
J.R.M: When I look at you I don’t recognize the twelve year old kid I met in the Brunete Tournament- you seem older than your years, it’s like you’ve taken more than your share of knocks.
F.T: It’s not that, but at the age of twelve football is beautiful, it’s fun, you play alongside your mates and when you finish a match you hang out with them- all that’s over now, at this level football raises high emotions, moves a lot of money and has many interested parties- it’s got nothing to do with how things were back then in Brunete.
J.R.M: So when you get to where you’ve got to football isn’t so beautiful anymore?
F.T: Playing is just as much fun as ever, but all the stuff that surrounds it isn’t so great. It’s something you have no idea about when you’re a kid. There’s great responsibility and you have to know how to deal with it especially when things aren’t going so well.
J.R.M: What hurts the most?
F.T: Losing. Seeing your team-mates, who’ve been giving everything all week to win a game and then to lose, seeing that the coach has worked out the perfect plan only for it to fail. Next to that the rest of it is nothing.
J.R.M: Is it hard being Fernando Torres?.
F.T: No. I’m privileged. I try not to read or listen to my own press; obviously criticism gets back to me, but it just makes me want to get back out there and take on the world, win the game, score the goals. Football goes on, football didn’t finish on Sunday, there’s a whole season ahead of us and we want to show everyone that the Madrid game was a fluke. I hope all Atletico people are taking it calmly, because we’re going to go forward from here. There’ll be other games against Madrid.
J.R.M: Does the fact that people say that you played well, despite not scoring, make things any better?
F.T: I’m happy with the way I played, what other people say makes no odds to me. I’m not happy about the chances I missed, but I am with the game overall.
J.R.M: Which of the missed chances has dwelt most on your mind?
F.T: Soon as the game was over I tried to forget about the lot of them. Today, in training, seeing my friends and team-mates, has been when I’ve thought about it most. I’ve watched the highlights and it still surprises me that we had fourteen good chances and we didn’t convert one, and they had three chances and scored three goals.
J.RM.: The papers talked about you going into the game with too much anxiety, even Ferrando said something to that effect.
F.T: The coach has always supported me, I don’t think he said anything out of the ordinary. You go into the Madrid game wanting to win more than ever, but if the ball won’t go in it won’t go in. It’s one day, it doesn’t last for ever.
J.R.M.: Real Madrid motivated you more than the usual? Have you been given too much responsibility?
F.T: No, the level of responsibility is constant. I was motivated by the type of game that it was. Obviously big games, like against Barcelona, Valencia, or Deportivo are the kind of matches you most like to take part in- this was one of those.
J.R.M: Do you agree with the criticisms of you in the press regarding yesterday’s game?
F.T: The opinions of such people mean nothing to me. I respect them, but I only give importance to those of my team-mates, my coach or people close to me. The coach has cheered us up ready for Wednesday’s game, as he realized we were down.
J.R.M: But don’t you think it’s possible that many people around you won’t always be entirely sincere, in order to please you?
F.T: There are a few, very few people who tell me about the things I have done wrong, when I do things wrong, or about the things I do well, when I do things well. I let those people guide me.
J.R.M: I sense that you feel hurt about some things that some journalists have said, but really nobody in the press is against you.
F.T: No, no, I’m sure there’s no-one out to do me down, at least I hope not, but they aren’t opinions which concern me. They don’t help me to improve, and they have no idea what it is to be out on the pitch in front of seventy thousand people.
J.R.M: The sad thing would be if people stopped talking about you.
F.T: That’s for sure. When they’re talking about you it’s because hopes and expectations are tied up in you, and people want you to fulfil them. I don’t want to be just another footballer, I want a lot to be demanded of me. There’s criticism which is intended to help you improve, and criticism which means to destroy you.
J.R.M: Will you sleep better tonight?
F.T: Same as last night.
J.R.M.: I’ll see you soon, my friend. Take care.
F.T: Many thanks.