As the international break comes rolling around Liverpool won’t be action at Anfield this weekend. However, many club legends will be turning up in Liverpool shirts to face Ajax in a friendly on Saturday.
Including Fernando Torres, who returns to play for Liverpool for the first time since he left the club. Although, it won’t be the first time he has played at Anfield. The Spanish World Cup winner did feature in an all-star charity match with the likes of Xabi Alonso and Steven Gerrard back in 2015.
But so much has happened since then. Torres has retired from football after playing in Japan at the end of his career. He has then taken on a managing role at Atletico Madrid and more recently rocked up coaching against Liverpool in the UEFA Youth League.
Reflecting on that match, it’s clear playing against Liverpool’s young players at the time left a mark on Torres. He recently revealed there were three Liverpool youngsters who he faced back in 2021 who have really impressed him.
Fernando Torres on the three Liverpool youngsters who have impressed him
Liverpool were drawn with Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Youth League group-stages during the 2021/22 season. Already by then Torres was Atletico Madrid’s U19 manager, and he faced Liverpool in two hotly contested encounters.
The first game in Madrid was won by Torres with a 2-0 score line. However, the second game was won by Liverpool at the AXA training centre in Kirkby with another 2-0 score line and with Jarell Quansah scoring one of the goals.
Speaking to LFCTV, Torres reflected back on that game and named the three Liverpool players who impressed him. And who have since gone onto reach even greater heights at first team level.
“I remember playing against Liverpool in the UEFA Youth League three years ago,” Torres said.
“I played against Quansah, Clark and many other players that you can see now in the first team and it’s really nice to see when they were young and now they are in the first team. Bradley! What they are doing. It’s really nice also for the coaches to be part of that.”
Now it’s also really nice for those young players to be recognised by Fernando Torres. All three of them have now fully become members of Jurgen Klopp’s first team squad, and have a very bright future ahead of them.