Fernando Torres Left Out Of Spain Squad For First Time In Five Years

Alan Duffy

24th, February 2012

16 Comments

By Alan Duffy


Once the blonde-haired, blue-eyed prince of Spanish football, Fernando Torres has, in the space of a year, turned into a £50 million flop.

Since moving to Chelsea from Liverpool, the attacker has seriously lost his mojo and now his impotence in the Premier League has seen him fall out of favour with World Champions Spain.

Ahead of their friendly game against Venezuela next Wednesday, Spain boss Vicente Del Bosque has decided to leave Torres out of his squad for the first time in five years.

Del Bosque reasoned thus:

“Torres is not in good form and we believed in this case it was better if he didn’t come.

“He is a lad we appreciate a lot and it pains me to leave him out, but I wanted to be fair – but this doesn’t mean anything. This is not a definitive list for [Euro 2012].”

So, the official line is that his spot isn’t on the line quiet yet, but surely Torres’ place at the EURO 2012 finals must now be in doubt?

Torres’ last goal for Spain came all the way in September 2010 against the mighty Liechtenstein, but his omission from La Roja is all the more crushing for the player considering that David Villa is currently out of action with a broken leg. Instead of opting for Torres, Del Bosque has chosen Sevilla’s Alvaro Negredo and Roberto Soldado of Valencia.

Here’s the squad in full:

Victor Valdes (Barcelona), José Manuel Reina (Liverpool), Iker Casillas (Real Madrid); Alvaro Arbeloa (Real Madrid), Carles Puyol(Barcelona), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Andoni Iraola (Athletic Bilbao), Gerard Piqué (Barcelona), Jordi Alba (Valencia); Javi Martínez (Athletic Bilbao), Xavi (Barcelona), Andrés Iniesta (Barcelona), Cesc Fábregas (Barcelona), Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid),Sergio Busquets (Barcelona), Santi Cazorla (Malaga), Thiago Alcântara (Barcelona), David Silva (Manchester City), Jesús Navas(Sevilla); Fernando Llorente (Athletic Bilbao), Iker Muniain (Athletic Bilbao), Juan Mata (Chelsea), Alvaro Negredo (Sevilla), Roberto Soldado (Valencia)

Still pretty formidable, no?

Posted in Chelsea, FAIL, International football

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16 Comments

  1. can I honestly just say? says:

    what a team

  2. noiz says:

    the squad still looks pretty unbeatable

  3. jen says:

    torres does not have blue eyes, duh!!!

  4. Sebastian says:

    Sad to say torres is done

  5. Solihull United says:

    still a very good squad, if anything torres would just bring them down. i’d rather have fraizer campbell then torres anyday

  6. C says:

    Torres lost his mojo before he joined Chelsea.
    Selling him is without a doubt the best deal Liverpool made.

  7. alex ferguson says:

    best decision bt del bosque coz torres is useless and impotent player. we in man utd will not buy this kind of player. we got ugly rooney, big head berbatov, injuries prone michael owen (wheter still alive or not), stupid henandez and buraku man wellbeck. mush better than this idiot player name fernando torres.

  8. wolfinho says:

    kinda sad. because of my age and american-ness (stumbling into soccer fandom as a young teen), torres is one of the first players i got to watch as he was coming into great form at atletico, riding high at the top with liverpool, and falling from glory at chelsea. when he goes back to spain for a few underwhelming years and heads for that last paycheck in russia/the UAE/the US, my transformation will be complete. such is life.

  9. Rob says:

    I’m pretty sure Torres scored against the United States in a friendly last year. Not defending him…that’s not much better than Lichtenstein!

  10. rooney the papaya says:

    to alex ferguson, you are rite, i support your statement. torres is really a useless player same as man utd player.

  11. Ali says:

    i know this has nothing to do with the article but i just wanted to say it………..screw anyone who says that man utd could have beaten napoli unlike chelsea!!!!

  12. garza says:

    Poor bloke. He’s had a disastrous loss of form but there’s still a world-class player in him somewhere. He just needs to find his way back. Don’t they have sports psychiatrists for this kind of thing?

  13. Jolly Oh says:

    @ Rob United States has actually made it to Finals (Confederations Cup vs Brazil up 2-0 but lost 3-2) and we did top the Group with England in it at the World Cup but then again all 31 teams at the World Cup are better than you blimeys. *gives v sign/peaces sign* oh does this mean something derogatory on your side of the pond?

  14. Jay says:

    Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas, Mata, Silva, Busquets, Alonso. Enough midfield talent?!?!?!! Ridiculous!

  15. Del says:

    He never had blue eyes!!

    ^
    |
    This is all I care about.
    And the fact that I won’t get to see any Sernando. :(

  16. martin says:

    The squad doesn’t look pretty unbeatable… After all, would you rather be afraid of this “eclectic” side which is a collection of good players but who barely play together or the 2010 squad, which was a pretty in-form Barcelona based squad with Real Madrid insertions? Think “no injuries in the past year for Puyol, Pique, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta” plus a Torres who used to score and a Villa who was on route to be their all-time goalscorer.

    2010 was the peak, this squad can definitely catch a bad day.
    Not that it’s a bad squad at all… i’m just saying the risk is high given there is less chemistry.

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