Euro 2012: Fernando Torres bags the Golden Boot award
Torres scored his third goal of the Euro 2012 in the final to win the Golden Boot award despite being on par with a bagful of other players - Mario Balotelli of Italy, Alan Dzagoev of Russia, Mario Mandzukic of Croatia and Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal.
Torres scored his third goal of the Euro 2012 in the final to win the Golden Boot award despite being on par with a bagful of other players - Mario Balotelli of Italy, Alan Dzagoev of Russia, Mario Mandzukic of Croatia and Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal. Torres also had an assist against his name.
Torres finished with 3 goals and an assist in the tournament and was on par with German sensation Mario Gomez. What was in "El Nino's" favour though was the fewer minutes he had spent on the football field.
He was in the starting line up for only one game in the tournament, that against the Republic of Ireland where he got a brace.
Cesc Fabregas and Alvaro Negredo got the nod ahead of him in the other fixtures of Spain.
In the final against Italy, Spain were already in the ascendancy when Torres was called on by Del Bosque.
Italy's chances were all but over when Thiago Motta was stretchered off when the Azzurri had already made their three substitutions.
Torres was then joined in the party by his Chelsea teammate Juan Mata. It was Fernando who had assisted Mata for a tap in.
Torres also played a key role in helping Chelsea win the Champions League, scoring in the semi-final against Barcelona.
Success was hard to come by for Torres in the beginning of the season but the end has brought so much of it that it might just be hard even to digest.