FERNANDO TORRES already knows one English word very well – expectation. After all, he’s lived with it all his life.

He joined his boyhood team Atletico Madrid, aged 11, rejected an offer from Real Madrid at 12, had a £2m buy-out clause at 15, became the youngest player to play for Atletico at 17 and the youngest, at 19, to become captain – and he won his first international cap before he was 20.

He alone carried the hopes of one of Spain's biggest clubs for seven years – and he is still only 23.

However, Torres admits that if it wasn't for the support and dedication of his family he would never have made it.

“When you belong to a club like Atletico Madrid at such a young age you live for it,” Torres recalled. “It’s indescribably exciting, although I couldn’t let myself forget that football was still just a hobby for me.

“But for my family it was a nightmare. I say a nightmare because of the effort the four of them put in so I could become a footballer. Although, that wasn’t the goal then, because no-one knew, not one of us even imagined, I’d get to where I am today.

“My dad had to leave work in the afternoons to take me to training in Orcasitas, and then go back to work in Fuenlabrada by train.

“Other times my mother took me to the training ground on the bus and on the train. Even if it was raining or baking hot she’d always take me.

“She used to say ‘if you ever get tired you don’t have to go anymore; don’t feel obliged to keep on with the football.’ But I never got tired of it.

“And sometimes even my brother and sister had to take me, too. While I was playing, they’d be in the stands studying, in the different grounds they had to take me to.

“Without my family I never would have got into the first team. I never would have even been a footballer.”

Torres first joined the club's youth Academy in the late summer of 1994.

Just two years later, when Torres was still only 13, Atletico won the La Liga and Copa del Rey cup double. It was their first Spanish League success since 1977.

It had a massive influence over the young star.

“That made me even more proud to be part of the club,” he confesses. “In just a handful of years I’d lived through the double, relegation, promotion, happiness and disappointment as a player and a fan.”

After progressing through the ranks for a few seasons Torres won his first important youth title in 1998.

Under the guidance of respected Spanish youth coach Pedro Calvo, Atletico sent an Under-15 squad to compete in the Nike Cup against youth teams from across Europe.

Academy sides from Real Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Manchester United and Juventus were all in attendance, but Atletico came out on top with Torres their star player. He was just 14 but was named the best cadet player in Europe.

The following season he led Atletico to the national youth league title, and was rewarded with his first professional contract.

Then, in 2001, he topped that off as the leading scorer and player of the tournament as Spain won the Under-16 European Championships staged in England.

Torres scored the winner in the final – a feat he would repeat years later in the Under-19 Championships.

He returned to Spain a hero, and to Atleti as the saviour who would lead them out of the second division, where they had just been relegated.

However, things did not start well. Thanks to a cracked shinbone Torres didn’t start playing until December.

And he had to wait another four months before he finally made his first team debut.

Torres says: “After the Under-16s Championship I played a match with the Under-18s, and I also played in the final of the Youth Champions Cup.

“Then, a few days later, I was told I was going to train with the first team, as I was going to be involved in the pre-season preparation and I might as well get integrated into the set-up.