Sports Nicknames - El Nino

Fernando Torres was once the hottest striker in the world. Whether he was playing in Spain or England, before the age of 25 he was banging in goals left, right and center. Because he was so young and so prolific, he earned the nickname El Nino (The Kid).



Starting his professional career at Atletico Madrid at 15, Torres had a relatively slow start to life in the first team, only scoring 6 goals in 36 appearances as Atletico got promoted to La Liga. However, he then started scoring more, with 14 and 19 goals the next two seasons. Only 19, he was named captain of Atleti.

He came to even more fame when he secured a move to Liverpool in 2007. This was where he picked up the name El Nino, as he scored 65 goals in 105 appearances for the club. This would be the peak of Torres' career, as he would suffer an injury before transferring to Chelsea FC for a then-British record fee of £50 million. Torres did not perform as well as he had previously for Liverpool, although he did win the Champions League, FA Cup and Europa League while at the club.

Torres rejoined Atleti in 2015, playing for his home club until 2018. He finally joined Japanese club Sagan Tosu for one final season before retirement in 2019. El Nino scored 200 goals in 578 appearances across his club career, as well as taking part in the nearly unbeatable Spanish national team from the late 2000s to 2014.


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