New Manchester City recruit, Ferran Torres spoke at length to the daily Marca. The opportunity for the 20-year-old Spanish attacking midfielder to explain the reasons for his departure and settle accounts with the leaders of Valencia, part of the press and his former teammate Dani Parejo.
Trained at Valence CF, Ferran Torres left yesterday , one year from the end of his contract. Traitor for some, symbol of a club that is not doing well for others, the promising Spanish attacking midfielder wanted to speak in the columns of Marca to respond to his detractors and those who accuse him of not having been clean with his training club. We have translated some interesting passages from his interview for you below. Good reading.
Marca: Now that you are officially a new Manchester City player, how are you feeling?
Ferran Torres : “On the one hand, very happy and impatient, even if I am at the same time very sad because I am leaving the club of my heart. It is the team that gave me everything and trained me since my seven years … but where I also had some difficult and frustrating times that made me decide to leave. But I would like to point out, just to make it very clear, that I am very grateful to the Valencia CF and that I will support him wherever I am. The problem is that there are people within the club and a few journalists determined to criticize me and tarnish my image. I refuse to leave on bad terms. Valence because I am a Valencianista.
Did you feel persecuted?
When the club made the decision to promote me to the first team, without me forcing anything, I began to receive pressure and criticism to refuse this proposal. And not just me. We also wanted to hurt and discredit my agents and my family. Even if, luckily, it was only a few media. The same people who are campaigning against me today said at the time that we were wrong and that we were going to fail. When you’re 17, it hurts a lot. In saying this, I must also recognize that many other media and journalists have always treated me with respect and affection. Even though there are still club employees who are working to tarnish my image.
We feel you are affected. Do you think that one day you will be able to come back to Valencia?
I’m sure. I refuse to think otherwise, even though there are people determined that this will end badly. But a lot of those people won’t be at the club in a few years, and by then I hope I have shown that I deserve to come back.
What do you have to say to the supporters?
I have to thank them for everything. I have always felt their support, which has been very important to me. I feel that with my departure I have offended some, that was not my intention, because as a Valencian and valencianista, it is the last thing I want, but all it is past forced me to take a different path than I had dreamed of.
When did you decide to leave?
I started thinking about it last summer, when I came back super motivated after winning Euro U19 and the club told me personally and my agent that they were not counting on me . They literally told me that I was the fifth option for the winger position, that there would also be recruits in this area of play and that other teammates who evolve in other positions were going to pass in front. me. It was a big blow for me, even if the hardest part was when the club then put me on the market. Valencia offered me to all the teams in Spain and 12 La Liga clubs called us, including Levante, as well as a second division team. When the club put me on the market, that’s when I started thinking about going.
What a story…
Like I said, this opened my eyes. There were other very complicated moments, such as the Covid-related interruption. I tested positive and I was very afraid of everything I saw and heard and at the same time I received these campaigns and criticism of the club via different media … There it was final.
Did you feel that it was possible to extend at some point?
Yes of course. When César (appointed director of football last January, editor’s note) arrived at the club, there were a lot of meetings. At that time, we already knew the conditions that the market was offering us, because as I said before, I have been on the market since the summer before, and my agent literally said to Caesar : “We have done our job, now it’s up to you to buy Ferran, because you are the one who put it on the market”. To redeem me, as my agent said, we asked the club to agree to at least two of the three conditions we set. None were accepted.
What were these three conditions?
One concerned Peter Lim (the owner of Valence, editor’s note). We wanted him to get personally involved to prove to me that I was important for the club. The other condition was to be captain, because I had seen that other clubs had done that with their young people from the house, like Oyarzabal or Fernando Torres, to retain them. And the third condition was to be among the best paid players in the workforce. Two out of three conditions were required. None were accepted.
How did Caesar react?
His reaction was to say that this was all impractical. And right after that he did two things: he used several media to reveal exchanges he had had with my agent, and he made me a single offer, which my agent received on February 24, 2020 by mail. It was an offer that did not include any of our conditions and to which we had already responded. In return, we received a kind of pressure … to say things in a friendly way.
So you think that you have put your own to extend?
Totally. I wanted to stay and I offered the club the conditions to do so. And two of the three conditions, as I explained, were not economical. Regarding the economic condition, it was also not beyond the means of the club. I knew Valencia couldn’t pay me as much as the big European clubs, but I felt capable of being the leader of this project and I wanted to be treated as such, for the club to make an effort to hold me back. They just didn’t want to, that’s all.
There are rumors about your relationship with Parejo. Is it true that you don’t get along well?
I must say that after three years in the first team, it all made me mentally stronger and more mature. But at 17, that wasn’t necessarily the case. Parejo is a great player, but personally I have never had a relationship with him. When I got into the first team, at 17, it took him several weeks to give me a simple hello. I don’t think he was a good captain with me. The worst happened when Marcelino left. Along with Kang-In, we were singled out as the culprits in the locker room, and we were not spoken to for several weeks.”
