Do we like them?

Do we like Fernando Torres?

Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean run on both tests, held back from higher because the searches found little on his views either way.

Fernando Torres came up through Atlético Madrid, spending six years in the academy and six in the senior side. He left for Liverpool in 2007, where he scored 81 goals in 142 games, his best strike rate at any club. Think of a striker who was properly feared and a bit of a poster boy for the Premier League.

The trophy cabinet backs that up. He scored the only goal in the Euro 2008 final against Germany for Spain, and he won the Champions League and Europa League in four years at Chelsea. He then had spells at AC Milan, a return to Atlético in 2015 and a stint at Japan's Sagan Tosu, before retiring in June 2019.

Since hanging up the boots he has gone into coaching. He spent three years in charge of Atlético's Juvenil A side, which won two league titles and a continental trophy. In June 2024 the club named him coach of Atlético Madrid B in Spain's third tier.

On the harm test, we went looking for anything on LGBTQ+ people, women, race, migrants, vaccines or climate in his own words, and for dodgy company. Nothing turned up, and no court outcomes against him either. The honest caveat is that he isn't a man who makes political statements, so a pass here means an absence of harm, not a record of speaking up.

On the good-person side, he played in a 2015 Liverpool FC foundation fundraiser at Anfield. Before it he said Liverpool fans were “part of my heart and my feelings”. Nothing recent has surfaced on him lately, and the latest page we could fully read is his 2024 promotion at Atlético.

So the call: a decent bloke by every page we could open, with plenty of goodwill from fans and nothing on the harm side. Our searches were thin on his private views and recent causes, which is why this is a solid seven and not a nine.