Ferran Torres : A psychologist helped me get back from rock bottom

Ferran Torres found point of inflection he needed with a spectacular performance against Cadiz. Just before his return to Manchester for the return leg of the Europa League tie against United, the Barcelona forward was at his best and completed a slow-cooked resurrection.

In an informal meeting with the press, the Spain international confessed that he “hit rock bottom” at one point this season and explained that thanks to his family, those closest to him and the help of a psychologist he learned to “value what I have” and to “enjoy football again.”

The main reproach that the “new Ferran” makes is the fact that he “wanted to be a player that I am not.”

Ferran Torres said: “I became obsessed with goals. I didn’t care if I had bad games, I just wanted to score. I’ve always been a player who dribbles, takes players on and assists. Normally I’ve also been good in front of goal, but I went through a bad patch and I didn’t know how to manage it.”

The bad final stretch of last season and the foot injury he unfortunately suffered on the first day of pre-season were the start of the decline: “It affected me a lot. I went into a hole and I couldn’t see my way out. It had never happened to me before.”

The former Manchester City player, who likes competition as he showed last summer when he publicly called for Ousmane Dembélé to continue, explained that the first thing he did to start the ‘resurgence’ was to “remember how I got here.”

“When I was playing badly, I was sinking,” he recalled about the beginnings of his recovery process before adding he has no doubt that the figure of psychologists in the world of professional football will be increasingly “normalised.”

He added: “I’ve taken it on board naturally. There are weeks when I don’t go to the psychologist and others when I go three times. We don’t always talk about football, we also talk about my private life.”

Ganas de ‘salseo’

Minutes before stepping onto the pitch at Spotify Camp Nou to shine against Cádiz, the Valencian had the feeling “that my time had come.”

He explained: “I was already a mature footballer since my departure from Valencia, but the dimension of everything I have experienced these months has helped me to grow a lot in all aspects. Now I dedicate myself to going out, enjoying myself and being happy playing.”

Although he did not play a leading role, the Spanish Super Cup has helped him, like the rest of the Barça squad, to free himself: “That trophy has given us the desire to kick on. It was like adding fuel to the fire. We want more.”

In this sense, Ferran commented that Xavi’s team is made up of “young players who want to take on the world.”

By players who, evidently, are ambitious and optimistic ahead of the transcendental continental duel against United: “We’ll have to run like there’s no tomorrow. It will be a game of patience and knowing how to suffer. We’re Barça and we’re going there with a lot of enthusiasm.”