Spain striker Fernando Torres has admitted that he lost his passion for playing football after enduring the toughest period of his career.
The 28-year-old silenced his critics by scoring a brilliant double in his country s 4-0 demolition of Republic of Ireland on Wednesday night.
And the former Atletico Madrid striker could not hide his delight at scoring his first major tournament goals since netting the winner in the Euro 2008 final.
He told The Sun: I was pleased with my personal performance and very happy to have scored but I’m mainly happy because the team won.
We re confident now because we feel as strong as ever, because we played well. We have to keep playing like this.
We knew scoring early would set us up well. We needed the comfort that brought us. That got rid of the doubts and opened up the game.
And, while Torres said he was pleased with his performance, he admitted that he fell out of love with football after struggling for form after moving to Chelsea from Liverpool.
Del Bosque phoned me before dropping me for the Venezuela friendly and I fully understood (his reasons), he added.
I had lost some of my love for being at work.
Being picked for Spain had become a habit. Now it is a prize again. I had stopped setting an example to younger players, which is something I was taught to do at Atletico Madrid.
