Fernando Torres – a career in pictures
Former Liverpool and Chelsea striker Fernando Torres is set to call time on his 18-year playing career.The 35-year-old made his breakthrough at Atletico Madrid before a prolific spell with Liverpool preceded Champions League, Europa League and FA Cup wins with Chelsea.Here, Press Association Sport takes a look at the World Cup winners career in pictures.Atletico Madrid hotshot Fernando Torres, then 22, starred when England played Spain in a February 2007 friendly at Wembley (Peter Byrne/PA)Rafael Benitez brought Torres to Anfield for a reported fee of 20million in July 2007 (Peter Byrne/PA)With 24 Premier League goals in his first season, Torres became an instant fan favourite at Anfield (Peter Byrne/PA)Torres celebrates scoring his second goal of an eventual Anfield hat-trick against Hull in September 2009 (Peter Byrne/PA)Torres takes to the sky during a 2-1 home Champions League defeat by Fiorentina in December 2009 (Martin Rickett/PA)Torres goes to ground after a challenge by Manchester Uniteds Wayne Rooney at Old Trafford in September 2010 (Gareth Copley/PA)Not all Liverpool fans were gracious when Torres made a deadline-day switch to Chelsea in January 2011 (Dave Thompson/PA)Torres was reunited with Liverpool and Lucas Leiva in a League Cup quarter-final in November 2011 (Nick Potts/PA)Torres and Didier Drogba celebrate victory in the 2012 FA Cup final (Rebecca Naden/PA)Two weeks later, Torres and Juan Mata lifted the Champions League trophy after beating Bayern Munich in the final (Owen Humphreys/PA)Torres was part of the Spain set-up who won the European Championships of 2008 and 2012, and the World Cup in 2010 (Niall Carson/PA)Torres wears a protective mask in a Europa League quarter-final against Rubin Kazan in April 2013 (Nick Potts/PA)Torres went on to lift the trophy with Chelsea following their victory over Benfica in the final in Amsterdam (Nick Potts/PA)Torres (left) and West Brom goalkeeper Ben Foster have a dispute following a 1-1 draw at the Hawthorns (Martin Rickett/PA)Torres tasted Europa League glory again last year, this time with Atletico (Nick Potts/PA)(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
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