BarcelonaApril 14, 2022. Barça loses (2-3) against Eintracht Frankfurt in a match to forget: because of the sporting elimination from the Europa League and, above all, because of the Dantesque image of a Camp Nou dyed white with more than 30,000 German followers. That day, the whole team collapsed. With no objective beyond securing qualification for the next edition of the Champions League, the end of the 2021-22 season was one of drama. The players also resented it. Especially, Ferran Torres, who only a few months before had changed Manchester City to come to a Barça in low hours.
The winger from Foios does not regret his decision, although he admits that if he had not been injured, it would have been more difficult for him to land in Barcelona because he had started the course as a starter at City, until a injury kept him out of action for three months. The same one that conditioned his debut as a Blaugrana player. “You can’t say no to Barça. I knew that the club’s situation was complicated, eliminated from the Champions League and in ninth position in the League, but Xavi called me and I was clear after talking to him.” In January he landed in exchange for 55 million euros (plus variables). It was the first major signing after the departure of Leo Messi and in a very delicate financial situation at the club, a label that has accompanied him since his arrival. “I can’t control this, I don’t decide what is paid for a player”, argues Ferran, in a meeting with the press at the Ciutat Esportiva. The striker breaks his silence.
With Barça demanding and with the slab of the price paid, the arrival of the ex-Valencia player in Barcelona was complicated. And he would soon become obsessed with the goal. “It was a mistake. I came to think that I didn’t care about playing a crap game if I managed to score. And it doesn’t work like that,” confesses, bluntly, Ferran, who speaks fluent Valencian, the language he uses with his closest circle of friends and family, who make up his armour, together with Sira Martínez, his partner and daughter of the former Spanish coach, Luis Enrique. The lack of success in front of goal, the rum-rum in the Camp Nou – a requirement that, despite being only 22 years old, he has been able to carry because he had a traumatic exit from a stadium like Mestalla – and the general decline of the team after the defeat against Eintracht end up taking him to the well.
“Ferran Torres: I couldn’t find my football”
“It wasn’t good. I didn’t finish the season the way I wanted. I couldn’t find my football,” he remembers. The summer vacation helped him to disconnect. Although he was waiting for some information that talked about a possible sale, but his representative assured him that Xavi was still counting on him. “I am very happy here, we have a young team, with veteran footballers like Busi [Busquets] and George [Alba] that help us”, he expresses. But just before the start of the pre-season, a foot injury that occurred during his vacation period, collapsed him. “He had just finished the season badly. I had made one reset, and with that I sank. It meant not being able to start the pre-season with my teammates and that would affect the start of the year…” That’s when he started working with a psychologist: “It wasn’t me, I hit rock bottom.”
Putting herself in the hands of a mental health expert has helped her out of the pit: “Sometimes I go there once a week, sometimes a couple or, when I need to, even three times. We talk about both football and my private life. I’m very happy about it. The psychologist is an increasingly common figure in the world of football.” On Sunday, he experienced his particular resurrection against Cadiz, before Thursday’s visit to Old Trafford, a stadium where he already knows what it means to win with City. “I was convinced that things would turn out well for me. I train to be ready. I know there is competition, but that’s normal”- But the key to having found “himself”, as he himself expresses, happens in largely due to mental work.
Stop obsessing about the goal and become the Ferran who made Pep Guardiola sign him from Valencia is his goal: “I am very clear about the player I can be”, he concludes. Thursday is one of the options that Xavi is considering for the eleven in the decisive match at Old Trafford, he could start from the left. “I can play in all three attacking positions, but where I feel most comfortable is on the right,” he admits. It is where he shone most against in the triumph against the Andalusian team, but it is also where Raphinha stands out the most. “We need both of them”, concludes the Blaugrana coaching staff.