Milan
and Sagan Tosu

At the end of August 2014 Torres agreed a loan to Milan, right after Spain crashed out of the World Cup and the Chelsea season had started. Officially it was a swap with Mario Balotelli. Balotelli to Liverpool, Torres to Milan. The contract was for two years with a buy option. The coach was Filippo Inzaghi, who knew his strengths perfectly and was ready to work with him.

But things turned out badly. Torres arrived in Milan not in top form, clearly exhausted psychologically after the last Chelsea seasons. Serie A is a league with tactics that demand large volumes of work in the defensive third. Atletico played a similar style but Torres had Diego Costa to shield him. At Milan he did not have a strike partner of that quality. 10 matches, 1 goal against Empoli (from the right from 20 metres, after beating the defender). In the 2014/2015 season Milan finished tenth in Serie A, their worst result in two decades.

By December 2014 Torres already understood he had to move on. He called his agent Jose Cora Jeros, asked him to find Atletico. The answer was quick: Atletico agrees, Milan is willing to let him go. The transfer was finalized on January 4, 2015, on loan until the end of the season with an onward transfer option. So Torres left Milan after five months and went back to Madrid. This period is considered the shortest and the most unsuccessful of his career, but its value is that it was through Milan that Torres could return to Atletico.

In March 2018 Fernando received an offer from Sagan Tosu, a Japanese club that a year earlier had taken Andres Iniesta at the neighboring Vissel Kobe. It was an experienced move for the Japanese J-League, which was actively signing European veterans (Podolski, Iniesta, Vieira, Zaccheroni). The club did not need a goalscorer, it needed a name, for tickets, merchandise, sponsorship contracts. Two-year contract, 7 million euros a year. Torres agreed immediately but asked to finish the Atletico season first.

The move to Sagan Tosu was announced on July 10, 2018. Torres flew to Tokyo, from there to Kyushu (a small island in southern Japan where the club is based). The presentation took place at Beamon Stadium, 23 thousand fans who had waited many hours to see the Spanish star. At the press conference Torres said through a translator: I came to Sagan to give football everything I have left. This is not a farewell, this is a new life.

On August 23, 2019 Sagan Tosu hosted Vissel Kobe at Beamon Stadium. It was the 25th round of J-League J1. The crowd came not for a league match, this was the Torres farewell. On the Vissel Kobe bench: Andres Iniesta, David Villa, Lukas Podolski. Three legends who had played with Torres at different career stages in Spain and Germany. It was an opportunity for a last goodbye among friends.

The match kicked off at 19:00 Tokyo time. The Beamon stand was full, 23,500 spectators. Torres started wearing the captain armband. In the second minute Iniesta walked up to him in the center circle and hugged him. That was the first frame to land on the covers of all Spanish newspapers the next day. In the break Torres told Iniesta: We played with each other on four continents. Now it is ending. Iniesta nodded and hugged him again.

The match ended 1-1. Torres played 60 minutes, did not score, was replaced to an ovation. After the whistle he walked round the pitch once, then was handed flowers from both clubs. At the press conference he said: I am finished. It was a strange career, I never thought I would end up in Japan. But it was precisely here that it was most comfortable to give football its last words.

Torres remembers his two seasons at Sagan Tosu as the calmest of his career. In Japan there was no press outside the hotel door, no tabloids, no fans who followed him in their cars. He could go with Olalla to a Kyushu restaurant without booking a separate room. The eldest son Leo, who was 10 at the time, enrolled in the local junior football section. It was the first country in the Torres biography where he could just be a person, not a brand.

He returned to Spain in September 2019, three weeks after the farewell match. He publicly announced retirement on June 21, 2019 (before the last match) so that fans could prepare. In September he organised a farewell tour at Vicente Calderon (now Metropolitano) coming out before the Atletico Madrid home match. He appeared with a glass of wine, said four sentences: Thank you all. I played. I am tired. I return to work. These four sentences defined his next stage, coaching.