Fernando Torres has been announced as Atletico Madrid's reserve team boss after earning his stripes under Jurgen Klopp.
The Spaniard will replace Luis García Tevenet, who has joined Diego Simeone's coaching team at the Wanda Metropolitano. He will be tasked with keeping Atletico Madrid’s reserve team in the 1st RFEF - the third tier of Spanish football.
Torres was previously head coach of Atleti’s under-19 team and helped the side to two league titles, a Champions Cup and a semi-final place in the UEFA Youth League. Speaking after his appointment was made public, the now 40-year-old said: “I am at home and I feel an enormous responsibility since I decided to face this new stage. It has been three years of constant learning.
“For me this step is very important and I want to be ambitious to do things better every day, face the challenges that come and the responsibility in the best way and at the same time knowing that I am in no hurry and no need to take a wrong step.
"I accept it as a great challenge with a lot of ambition and the peace of mind of knowing that we are prepared.”
Torres also revealed that he was tasked with preparing the club’s stars for the first team. He added: "The first thing is to know what the objective of a subsidiary is, which is to contribute many players to the first team.
“We have to insist to the players that their dream has to be to play for Atlético de Madrid and prepare them for the first team.
"The best way to do so is to compete and face a very complicated category with ambition, knowing that Atlético de Madrid requires you to give your all. Try to compete as well as possible, have the team at the top of the table because that is what will prepare them for what. What comes next, hopefully it will be our first team.”
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Torres had previously been afforded the opportunity to learn under former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp. He was invited back to Merseyside back in March to shadow the German.
Torres was also back at Anfield to watch the Reds in action in an effort to gain first-hand experience of management in the Premier League. He was previously asked if he harbours hopes of managing the Reds one day.
He said: "This is a big thing, I am just starting, learning and understanding how different it is to be a coach — it's a completely different thing.
"Starting from zero, doing the right step — one at a time — I'm trying to be a coach, let's see if I can do it. But coaching for Liverpool is a different thing, step-by-step."
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