El Niño Torres asks permission from Gárate and recovers the number nine

It was not a pose. Torres had the courtesy of asking Gárate for his approval to wear the number nine of Atleti again. "He sent me a message and I thanked him, today I will call him again to give him thanks and send him a hug," said Gárate to AS yesterday, who seemed almost moved by the gesture. "It was nice, but Fernando does not need to ask me for permission to recover the number, it is a great gesture and I interpret it within the respect he has for the club and not only for me, but for all the greats who have worn that number. He is as much number nine of Atletico as I was and many others," explained the legend, who went further by saying that "if I am a part of Atletico's history, he is already too." Between these two colchonero icons, a great relationship has been generated for some time now.

With the number nine, Torres will recover part of his essence and Gárate even sees with good eyes that he becomes a reference in the dressing room again: "It would be nice to see him again with the number nine and the captain's armband, he is perfect for that, a solid, discreet person with extensive international experience, he transmits all that to his teammates, in addition to the qualities he maintains."

Competition

With the arrival of Vietto and Jackson plus the presence of Griezmann, Torres will have fierce competition for the position, but Gárate still sees a relevant role for El Niño: "He has several good years of football left to give us, we need that Torres from the matches against Madrid, to stand up again to Real Madrid and Barcelona will be difficult but we have to fight because there is going to be a great squad."

They are only separated by 39 goals

With the seven goals scored during the last semester as a colchonero, Torres reached the figure of 97 goals as a red and white in 270 games, twelfth in the historical classification. Gárate ended his career at Atletico with 136 goals scored in 327 matches, he is fourth in the ranking. The first goal of El Niño this season should be to get into the top ten, for that he must equal Agüero's 101 goals. At 31 years old, he still has time ahead to reach Gárate's figures.