Ferran Torres (2000, Foios, Valencia) loves movies, being with his family, walking along Barcelona's Passeig de Gràcia and taking his dogs out watching the sunset on the Gavà or Castelldefels beach. He is also becoming fond of paddle tennis. And he has always been passionate about football. He hasn't had a good time in the last few months. Denied with the goal. Alternate. And mentally sunk. "I felt that he had fallen into a bottomless pit. I had never collapsed so much," the Valencian striker confessed in an informal meeting with the press. "I promised Xavi that he would be me again," he adds.
The journey began in the summer in which, after resting with his partner in the Maldives, he returned to his native Foios to train on his own. He wanted to show that last year could be his year after six somewhat abrupt months of adaptation in which he lived through Barcelona's tough elimination from the Europa League (2-3) against an Eintracht team that dyed the Camp Nou white.
Came the day. He passed the medical check-up with Barcelona and in the afternoon he injured his foot. He was in the pool, he cut himself on a tile. He missed the entire preseason. One month off. It was at that moment that he decided to ask for help. "I put myself in the hands of a psychologist. I usually go once or twice a week. We talk about everything, about football but also about my private life," confessed the footballer, who speaks Valencian with his parents and who has found in his partner, Sira Martínez, the daughter of Luis Enrique, to one of his most important supports.
Torres looks back. His landing at the Camp Nou in January 2021 was not easy. Aware that Barça made a huge effort to sign him by paying Manchester City 55 million euros and agreeing another 10 million in variables, a slab that has weighed on him, the Valencian put all his efforts to show his best version while recovering from his injury on the right foot. He was the first big signing after the departure of Leo Messi and in a very delicate financial situation at the club.
"I'm not to blame for the price they wanted to pay for me," said the 22-year-old striker who has already played in five editions of the Champions League and when he switched from Manchester to Barcelona he did so to join a Barça team that was ninth in the League and that it was going through a very difficult time. "I wanted to come because this is Barça. And you can't say no. The coach (Xavi) called me several times. Leaving City is not easy but the injury helped me in that sense," he says while his face lights up. look. "And I've always felt part of how we've turned everything around," he adds.
During his apprenticeship, Ferran Torres has managed "not to be so obsessed with the goal. I have learned to be happy. To face things. I have had a bad time, but it has been a great opportunity to get to know myself and to recover my football", confessed. And he is clear. "I want to succeed at Barcelona, I see myself here for many years." His contract extends, for the moment, until 2027.
Reasons are not lacking. He feels the affection of the fans, his teammates, the coaching staff and also the president Joan Laporta. "The president is a very close person with everyone. All of my teammates have helped me. Busquets told me that he should be calm. That the reward would end up coming.
Regarding his relationship with Xavi Hernández, the striker confessed that he is also one of those who has gone through several individual video sessions. "He congratulated me after the Cádiz game. We talk often but I'm not one of those footballers who ask why they don't play. I like competition and I have it here. Ousmane Dembélé is doing an extraordinary job", added the one from Foios who was one of the footballers who publicly requested the renewal of Ousmane Dembélé.
Formed in Valencia, the club of his loves in which he learned to grow up after an abrupt departure from a complicated and hostile place like Mestalla, Ferran ended up at Pep Guardiola's Manchester City in the year of the pandemic. "Pep is one of those coaches who knows so much about football that they tell you what will happen, that has always fascinated me," he said.
When he was wearing a City shirt, he played in a derby against Manchester United at Old Trafford. "We will have to run as if there were no tomorrow. It will be a game where we have patience and know how to suffer. The Premier League is a very physical league, it is true, but we have a lot of talent and that is also important. We go with everything and above all with people young woman ready to conquer the world", she added without losing her smile.
During his career he also ran into Luis Enrique, a former Spanish coach. "He gave me a lot of confidence when I wasn't playing so much for City. He helped me realize my full potential in the national team," he added. Going to Qatar to play the World Cup "helped me take a breather. But it was also difficult to leave so soon," he confessed. He was waiting for a Barça that had already climbed to the first place in the league with a lot of competition and with a leader like Xavi Hernández. He admires the coach "his ambition and the illusion with which he has arrived. He carries Barça in his veins and has won everything."
He also wants to win everything. And that is why he hopes that after a difficult journey, the good game he signed with Cádiz will be the beginning of a new era. "New era at Barça and new era for Ferran", he declared with a laugh. Of those that are contagious. Full of optimism and the desire to make it difficult for Xavi when he has to outline the eleven with which Barcelona will seek to eliminate Manchester United from Ten Hag in an imposing setting such as Old Trafford. "I can play in all three attacking positions, but where I feel most comfortable is on the right," he admits.
