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Ferran Torres is a regular in Spain's national team
Photo: FRANCK FIFE / AFP
The heavily indebted FC Barcelona made a costly transfer perfect.
As expected, the Catalans secured the services of Spanish international Ferran Torres from English champions Manchester City.
The 21-year-old offensive player receives a contract until the summer of 2027 that includes an exit clause of one billion euros.
The transfer fee should be around 55 million euros.
Since moving from Valencia CF to England last year, Torres has scored 16 goals in 43 games for City.
In his first season he was with the Citizens champion and reached the Champions League final.
In the current season, Torres has been missing the league leader since mid-October due to a fracture in his right foot.
In the Premier League he played only four out of 19 possible games.
Learned with Guardiola, sat with Luis Enrique
Torres is Barça's first entry since club icon Xavi took over from Ronald Koeman in November for the Catalans. Under the ex-professional, inexperienced young players have recently been regularly on the offensive of FC Barcelona, established professionals such as sales candidate Philippe Coutinho or Luuk de Jong, whose loan from Sevilla FC is to be terminated prematurely, sat on the bench. Regulars like Ansu Fati and Memphis were injured, Sergio Agüero forced heart problems to an early retirement.
With Torres, Xavi is now getting a player who should fit in with classic Barcelona football: Torres trained at Manchester City under successful coach Pep Guardiola.
In the Spanish national team, Torres, who can play any position on the offensive but prefers to attack from the right wing, is a regular under coach Luis Enrique.
He scored twelve goals in 22 international matches, three of them in a 6-0 win against the German national team in November 2020.
In Barcelona, Torres should now help to bring the season to a conciliatory end: In the league, Barça are only seventh after 18 matchdays, in the Champions League, the club was eliminated after the preliminary round.
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