Fernando spoke openly in an interview with Spanish national radio station ‘RNE’. The forward looked back at the Ballon d’Or award, his move to Liverpool and how he would love to see Reds take on his boyhood club Atletico in Europe again this season.

Liverpool, who are chasing their first league title in almost two decades, currently top the Premier League following an impressive start to the season. Torres described the how important the national league title means to fans and players. “If you take into account the grandure of English clubs, and the difficulty that lies in winning the domestic league crown, lifting the Premier League title is equivalent to winning three leagues.”

During the radio interview the forward referred to France Football’s Golden Ball award and how he felt both “proud and happy” to have finished behind “two of the game’s greats”, Ronaldo and Messi; a feat “which a year ago would have been unthinkable.” Fernando took his hat off to the eventual winner Cristiano Ronaldo, “a worthy winner” labelling the Portuguese winger a “goal machine” in a recent interview with football magazine ‘Kicker’.

When asked about his move to Anfield and the phone-call he received from coach Rafa Benitez, Fernando Torres explained that “he thought the call was a hoax”, and how “he called Spain team-mate Pepe Reina to see what the manager’s phone number was.” The call was in fact from the Liverpool manager, and eventually led to the player becoming a ‘Red’.

The Spanish striker, who is very happy with life on Merseyside, stated that: “Liverpool is in a different dimension to Atletico, although the Madrid-based club will always be the club of my life. Here (at Liverpool FC) I am not longer like I was in Madrid where everything was focussed on me. I did not have any experience so how could I have been the leader of players with more experience than me? That was pressure.”

Fernando Torres concluded the interview with RNE by confirming: “my dream is really to play in this year’s Champions League final against Atletico Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu.”