How Real Madrid tried to sign Ferran Torres FOUR times before he joined Barcelona
FT Desk
- 18 Mar 2022 20:42 GMT
- 4 min read
Whether it be in the upcoming El Clasico or in next season’s La Liga campaign, Barcelona will be hoping that they can pin their future success to new signing Ferran Torres.
Signed for around €50 million in the January transfer window from Manchester City, the Catalan giants are hedging their bets on the young forward and his ability to score and create goals for fun.
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However, one thing that may hint at a bright future at Barca is the fact that Barca’s historic rivals, Real Madrid, have already tried to sign Torres no less than four times over the course of his career.
According to a report from Diario SPORT, Los Blancos have been a fan of the forward for quite some time and they’ve now outlined where Madrid tried to sign Torres on more than one occasion.
Attempt no.1
The first time Madrid tried to sign Torres was when the player was just 10 years old, however at the time the forward’s family turned down the offer because they didn’t think the pressure of joining such a club would be good for their son.
Today will be a very special game for Ferran Torres. The forward will face his former team Valencia for the first time in his career. Torres played 13 years for Valencia. [md] pic.twitter.com/YTcVW59g7o
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) February 20, 2022
Attempt no.2
Madrid then came back in for Torres just four years later when he was 14 and making a name for himself in the Valencia youth teams. However, despite playing as a forward for his current club, Madrid wanted to train him into a right-back, which Torres simply wasn’t interested in doing.
Attempt no.3
The capital side then made a third approach for the forward a few years later, after Torres had made his way into Spain’s U-17 World Cup squad and broke into Valencia’s first team. At the time, Madrid were mulling over paying Torres’ €8m release clause, but then backed out when they saw it jump up to €25m upon making his debut for Valencia’s first team.
Ferran Torres critical of Valencia not offering him the captaincy and citing Fernando Torres at Atletico Madrid as a comparison. Yet Fernando Torres himself said it was "impossible" for him to be a leader at that age and it showed a fault of the club at the time (via @Datos_VCF) https://t.co/jioNcClAYe pic.twitter.com/Kh5AmhKk27
— Colin Millar (@Millar_Colin) August 5, 2020
Attempt no.4
A fourth and presumably final attempt was made to sign Torres in 2020, when the player was entering the final year of his contract at Valencia. The forward was looking for a move away from the club and Madrid could finally offer him what he wanted.
However, the pandemic then struck, which forced Madrid to delay their approach for Torres, in the hope of signing him for free one year later. Unfortunately for the Spanish giants, their risk didn’t pay off and Man City then swooped for the player.
