Fernando Torres

Nicknamed 'El Nino' (The Kid) for his youthful face, Torres is a striker for Spain and Liverpool

Fernando José Torres Sanz (born March 20, 1984) is a Spanish football player. He was born in the Fuenlabrada neighbourhood of Madrid and is the youngest player to play for Atlético Madrid and the youngest to become captain (at age 19). Nicknamed 'El Nino' (The Kid) for his youthful face, Torres is a striker for Spain and Liverpool.
To date, Torres has scored 75 goals over 5 seasons in the Spanish top flight, with only Samuel Eto'o and David Villa scoring more in the same period. Torres has also played two seasons in the second division where he scored 7 goals in 40 games.
In 1994, at the age of ten, Torres scored 55 goals in his first season with an eleven-a-side team, Rayo 13, and won himself a trial with Atlético Madrid. He impressed and joined the club in 1995. After progressing through the ranks for a few seasons Torres won his first important youth title in 1998. Atlético sent an under-15 team to compete in Nike Cup Europe against youth teams from such teams as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Manchester United and Juventus. Atlético won the tournament with Torres their leading player. He was later voted as the best player in Europe for that age-group.
In 1999, Torres signed his first contract with the club. In 2000 he broke his leg and didn't return to action until December. Then in February 2001 Torres won the Algarve Tournament with the Spain under-16 team. In May the under-16s took part in the 2001 UEFA European Under-16 Football Championship, which they also won, with Torres scoring the only goal in the final. He finished as the tournament's leading goalscorer (7 goals in 6 games) and was also voted the best player. Toward the end of the 2000–01 season Torres made his first team debut for Atlético. The date was May 27, 2001, the venue El Calderón and the opponent Leganés. He scored his first goal for the club the following week, in a game against Albacete.
At his first ever appearance in a World Cup finals at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Torres scored the final goal in a 4-0 victory over Ukraine with a volley. In the second group match, Torres scored twice against Tunisia, in the 76th minute for Spain to take the lead 2-1 and then again from a penalty kick in the 90th. Torres was dropped from the team for a friendly versus Romania in November 2006, but returned to the national side for the friendly against England in February 2007, a 1-0 win for Spain. After the World Cup Torres admitted that he turned down the chance to join Chelsea after the end of the 2005-06 season.

Liverpool
20 March 1984
Source: Wikipedia