{"id":72454,"date":"2026-08-19T04:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T04:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/72454\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T04:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T04:45:17","slug":"how-ferran-torres-quixotic-world-cup-winning-summer-led-to-his-barcelona-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/72454\/","title":{"rendered":"How Ferran Torres\u2019 quixotic World Cup-winning summer led to his Barcelona exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

There has been something almost absurd about Ferran Torres\u2019 summer.<\/p>\n

On July 19, he came off the bench in a World Cup final, scored the winning goal in the 106th minute and became a Spanish football hero.<\/p>\n

Spain celebrated him. Barcelona celebrated him, too. At the trophy parade held in Madrid following the team\u2019s return, inflatable sharks could be seen among the crowds \u2014 referencing the nickname he cultivated at Barca (tiburon, shark) as a way to deal with pressure.<\/p>\n

Now, a month on from Torres\u2019 strike in that 1-0 win over Argentina, some Barcelona supporters are celebrating his departure in a \u20ac50million (\u00a342.7m; $57.9m) transfer to Paris Saint-Germain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the ending you would expect for a World Cup hero.<\/p>\n

Torres, 26, is not leaving Barcelona as a unanimously hated player, nor is he departing on bad terms with the club or the people inside it.<\/p>\n

But many fans have been upset or annoyed by his behaviour over the past month \u2014 and the widely held theory is that his winning goal for Spain was the catalyst.<\/p>\n

First of all, we need to talk about the hat.<\/p>\n

During Spain\u2019s World Cup celebrations in Madrid, Torres wore a red baseball cap bearing the words \u2018Make Spain Great Again\u2019. You don\u2019t need to be a politics junkie to recognise the echoes with U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s \u2018Make America Great Again\u2019 slogan.<\/p>\n

The White House reacted to the image through its official account on X, posting a video of Torres wearing the cap with the line: \u201cEveryone wants in on the movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torres later insisted that it had nothing to do with politics, that it was simply about celebrating Spain being back at the top of world football.<\/p>\n

SEE IT: Spain World Cup champion Ferran Torres gives fans a front-row look at the national team\u2019s championship parade, sharing a POV video from the celebration on his Instagram Story while wearing a \u201cMake Spain Great Again\u201d hat.<\/p>\n

The championship-winning forward rides through the\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/BcwG8BIxqr<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Fox News (@FoxNews) July 21, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Then there was the bracelet.<\/p>\n

At the celebrations, Torres was also spotted wearing a rubber bracelet with a Spain flag that carried branding from the Guardia Civil \u2014 one of the country\u2019s two national law enforcement agencies (the other being the Policia Nacional).<\/p>\n

It would be unfair to assume that Torres was wearing that as some kind of political statement, but Catalonia\u2019s recent history means some people saw one regardless<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2017, at the peak of the region\u2019s now considerably weaker pro-independence movement, a referendum on the issue was organised by local authorities \u2014 without the permission of the Spanish government, who deemed it illegal. It brought huge crowds into Barcelona\u2019s streets and was met with a heavy police crackdown.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Torres was simply expressing his Spanish identity. But in Catalonia, even a seemingly harmless gesture can take on political significance. In Barcelona, a mural of Torres by Italian street artist TVBoy was defaced with the slogan: \u201cWe want Catalan national teams\u201d, Another message scrawled on top simply read: \u201cSpain\u201d. Both were written in Catalan.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n The mural of Ferran Torres by TVBoy as seen in Barcelona on July 22 (Josep Lago\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Torres responded to the situation in an interview with Radio Play Valencia a few weeks later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am Valencian, a Valencianista (a proud supporter of the Valencia region) and Spanish,\u201d he said. \u201cIf someone doesn\u2019t like that, that\u2019s their problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torres made those comments on August 7. By that time, he had already caused a bigger stir with several interviews in the United States.<\/p>\n

After the World Cup final, Torres and the other seven Barca players in Spain\u2019s squad had holidays before returning for pre-season training. Torres travelled to the U.S., where he took Barca by surprise with a round of media appearances on August 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a contract at Barcelona, but in football you never know,\u201d he said on NBC when asked where he would be playing this season, his Barca contract due to expire in June 2027. \u201cI am just waiting to make the right decision, but I don\u2019t know it yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, speaking to Sportico, he also addressed reported interest from PSG.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time these teams want you it\u2019s a good thing,\u201d Torres said. \u201cIn football you never know what can happen, but the good thing is that, as I have a contract, I can wait and decide on my own.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do Barca need to do to keep me? They have to show me they want me, come to negotiate, and in the end it\u2019s all about talking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Torres<\/p>\n

\n Spain held a trophy parade and celebrations in Madrid the day after the World Cup final (Diego Souto\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Torres is not a player who set the world alight at Barca. It would be fair to say he struggled overall to live up to the expectations following his \u20ac55million arrival from Manchester City in January 2022.<\/a><\/p>\n

He also struggled with the mental side of the game and consulted psychologists to help get the best out of himself. This is where that nickname comes in again. The \u2018shark\u2019 reference comes via UFC fighter Ilia Topuria. Torres heard an interview with the Georgian-Spanish athlete in which he said of his rivals: \u201cThere\u2019s only one shark here; the rest are sardines.\u201d<\/p>\n

He found it funny and told his Barcelona team-mates about it while they were eating. After an upturn in his goalscoring form for Barca at the beginning of 2023-24, the team started calling him \u2018El Tiburon\u2019. His goal celebrations reflected a player who felt he was proving doubters wrong.<\/p>\n

But Torres has still never quite managed to deliver consistently, and that feeling of it being him against the world has not disappeared.<\/p>\n

\"Ferran<\/p>\n

\n Ferran Torres\u2019 goal sealed the second World Cup in Spain\u2019s history (Justin Setterfield\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

At the start of 2025-26, Hansi Flick\u2019s idea was for the season to mark a transition from Robert Lewandowski to Torres as Barcelona\u2019s leading No 9, but the reality was different. Torres struggled and ended the campaign with 21 goals and three assists in 49 appearances, going 14 games without scoring between late January and mid-April. After the season ended, there were no advances on a contract renewal, a situation complicated by the deal that took him from City four years ago.<\/p>\n

Barca would have had to pay City about \u20ac8million if they had renewed Torres\u2019 contract,<\/a> while club sources \u2014 speaking anonymously as they did not have permission to comment \u2014 also said another clause meant selling him for anything over \u20ac55m would have forced them to pay City \u20ac10m.<\/p>\n

The Spanish club ended up seeing him as a top-class substitute rather than a regular starter. Further to this, they have been trying to sign Atletico Madrid\u2019s Julian Alvarez all summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Barca\u2019s pursuit of Alvarez reinforced a perception that had been building around Torres. He felt he had been treated harshly for some time, and he wanted to respond to that. Every goal had become an answer to his critics, every good performance a rebuttal.<\/p>\n

\"Torres<\/p>\n

\n Ferran Torres joins up with former Spain manager Luis Enrique at PSG (Lou Benoist\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The critics were real, of course. So was the pressure. Barcelona is an unforgiving place for any player, and Torres has received his share of criticism. No one can blame him for carrying it as he has. But at times he seemed to be fighting a version of his critics that was larger, louder and more permanent than the one that actually existed. Many Barcelona supporters saw a betrayal of some kind in those U.S. media interviews \u2014 as they felt the club\u2019s fanbase had rallied behind him in important moments.<\/p>\n

Did Torres receive more criticism than he deserved? Did he receive more support than he remembers? The truth probably lies somewhere in between. Then, he scored the winning goal in a World Cup final.<\/p>\n

The comparisons with Andres Iniesta\u2019s extra-time strike in the 2010 final against the Netherlands (another 1-0 win for Spain) were obvious. The logical next step, in Torres\u2019 eyes, might well have been to get out there and say, as the new hero of the nation, I told you so.<\/p>\n

But in the end, there is perhaps nothing more Spanish than emulating Don Quixote \u2014 fighting battles against giants that may have been much smaller than they seemed.<\/p>\n