Monday, July 7, 2008

The Euro trophy still warm, Torres back in Liverpool

Life's no beach for the modern sporting professional. One week after the Euro 2008 final in Vienna, half a week after being feted in Madrid as the scorer of the goal that won Spain's first major soccer trophy in 44 years, Fernando Torres is focused again on improving himself in England.
It will be hard to top his first season at Liverpool, where he scored 33 times, a record for a foreign player entering the most physically demanding league of them all. Yet there is a manager waiting for him - as it happens, he is a Spaniard, Rafael Benitez - and Torres on Saturday told the club's Web site: "There are days when you think, my God, this guy doesn't let you breathe. After you score 20, Benitez is at it during the next training sessions, and stays on top of you all day, all week."
He added: "He tells you to go off and do new exercises. I want progress in life, not to relax, not be complacent, and sometimes you need someone telling you to keep at it. You don't always fancy someone that close but in the long term everybody will thank him for it."
So, the Spanish fiesta was as short as it was sweet. Luis Aragonés, the coach who orchestrated it, has flown, at 70 years of age, to start a fresh challenge in charge of Fenerbahce in Istanbul. The Barcelona trio of Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta and Carles Puyol, their brief summer of unification with the Madrid players done and dusted, are headed back to a new setup, a new coach, a different, post-Ronaldinho approach to winning and not just entertaining.
Whither Ronaldinho? Nobody knows. He's 28, there are a few clubs who want, or can afford, to see if they might give him the fresh challenge, the hunger to display his talents. But the team he really wants to play for, AC Milan, is wary of his party image and seeks a loan deal, effectively a trial period before paying the millions Barça demands.

1 comments:

Unknown said...

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Euro Millions

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