Fernando Torres
Fitness is important, but the most important thing is how you adapt and the way you feel physically. To adapt to a new position. To try to change your game.Collection: Fitness
It's not easy to come somewhere new and have to find your place. You might feel someone doesn't like you, or you might need to find new friends. It's not easy, and I don't like this kind of thing. It's not easy, so you want to protect the players who are alone.Collection: Alone
You have to prove yourself every day. You have to live for today.
For me, Real Madrid are just like any other club, like Barcelona, Milan, Bayern Munich, or Inter. Just another big club.
Football is a team sport and not an individual sport. We win as a team, and every individual is better if we are part of the team.
My father worked every day; my brother and sister had to travel many hours to study, so Atletico were for people like us.
Big clubs in Europe always go through difficult spells where it appears as though there is no light at the end of the tunnel. But because they are big clubs, they always come back, and they do so with a vengeance.
As a kid, I never once dreamt of playing for Liverpool.
Liverpool gave me a second home. I was 24, I left my team, my town, and I went there. My memories there are just amazing. I have no words to thank them enough, and that's why I will always be a fan.
I was captain in Atletico at 19, playing in the same team as Demetrio Albertini, who won three Champions Leagues, and Sergi Barjuan from Barcelona, who had won everything, and they were 32, 33. I was a kid as captain, so I wasn't the real captain, just a kid learning from them.
When I retire, the only thing that concerns me is that no one can say that I was a bad team-mate or disrespectful or self-important.
I am a big fan of the Gallagher brothers. At Liverpool, they came a few times; they are friends of Steven Gerrard. It was nice to meet them. When I was in Spain, I couldn't speak English, so I couldn't understand the lyrics. When I came to England, I started studying music and trying to understand what my favourite songs said.
I didn't realise how my life was changing. When I was 17, 18, 20, I didn't realise how big football was and everything around football. How many people live for football and love football. I was a professional, but I was a supporter.
The Premier League is very difficult football and very different to when you play in Europe, but the player has to have experience to adapt, and this is the key point.
Liverpool is a fundamental part of my life. They don't remember me that way, but time will change that. I could not have chosen a better place to go when I left Atletico.
My son is a Liverpool fan, and he was already kicking a ball before he was one. He was born in the football city; he had no choice.
I want to say thanks to the Chelsea fans because I have seen them very, very happy with me for joining Chelsea.
The Champions League is a big ambition, and all the footballers want to play in it; it is a very important competition.
Madrid is not as big as London, but it is true when you are coming from a big city like Madrid, nothing is going to surprise you, and I am very happy to move to a city like London. It is a big city, and you can do everything you want with the respect that the English people always have.
I remember when I first came to Liverpool, Pepe Reina helped with everything, and he made it easy for me. When I was Atletico Madrid captain, I tried to help everyone. These are the basics in football: you need to create an atmosphere and try to create a group of friends. It's not easy, and it doesn't always happen, but you have to try.
The biggest ambition in my career is still to win the European Cup. I want to have a picture of that to look at later; I want to have that medal. You can have a contract that is better than your friends, but no player looks back and says: 'I won more money.'
Liverpool is a massive club in reputation, but as soon as I came here, it felt like Atletico to me. It is a working city, an honest city. The people work all week, and on Saturday they want to go to Anfield and watch the best team in the world.
You have to know what club you are playing for, or you just play for yourself. Every time I put on a Liverpool shirt, I know it is more than just a football game.
One of the reasons I chose to come to Liverpool was because of the mentality of the club. It's a working club and a working city. I don't know why, but I feel like one of the people here. They recognise me and wish me luck, but in Spain, they surround you and you can't do anything. I think they're happy with me here.
My baby will be growing up in Liverpool, so we have another Scouser.
After winning the European Championship with Spain, I know exactly how it feels to win a major trophy, and I know that, if we can win at Liverpool, it will feel the same or even better than it did with Spain.
At Liverpool, I had almost everything but titles. I felt like a king, but the team was falling apart.
The things you cannot change you can't waste your time on.
If the manager thinks there is another player better than you, he is going to play, and this is the way. You have to try to improve and keep fighting and try to change the manager's mind.
Everything I have done in my career I have done from my values and doing things the way I like to do. So winning doesn't matter the world for me.
Messi is the best. I have not seen or will ever see a player like Lionel Messi.
When young players become one of the best in the world, everyone wants to sign them.
If we win the Champions League, everyone is a better, more recognised player, but if you win an individual award and nothing with your team, it means nothing.
In your life, you go through a difficult situation or a very good situation, and you have different moods, but you learn things from your experiences.
You have to win with the team and for the team.
If we win trophies, we have the chance to win individual awards because it comes with the team targets.
Steven Gerrard is the best player I have played with throughout my career; therefore, my ideal player would be very like him.
I can be very shy. I really like to stay at home with my people because I'm really shy. My wife is as well; we're both really shy.
I like to play. It doesn't matter if it's just me up front on my own or alongside another striker. I always want to play in the first XI.
I'm a quiet guy, but on the pitch, it's different. You have to do everything you can to win and help your teammates.
I was always fighting with everyone when I was a kid. I was playing with people two or three years older than me, and I had to survive. So I love the physical game, the contact. And I don't know why, but I think football is like this. It is not just touching the ball and stringing together 50 pretty passes consecutively.
I just do not see myself playing for Madrid. They do not attract me, especially because of my past with Atletico.
Ronaldo is different from Messi. He is very impressive down the wings.
When you play, you do not ask yourself how it feels to be on the bench. You have to live it to understand how difficult it is to be there without being there. To enter a match knowing you do not have the confidence of the coach. To play when you simply don't have the habit of playing.
A player wants to be remembered for what he has won, for the medals, for what he has given his club.
You can have a contract that is better than your friends, but no player looks back and says, 'I won more money.'
It was very hard to go through life as a small boy supporting Atletico.
I left in Liverpool a lot of friends. I have a very good relationship with all of them.
My only path has always been to work hard.
Nobody has ever gifted me anything.