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Steven Gerrard played a crucial role in helping Fernando Torres weigh up his options before deciding to leave Liverpool to join Chelsea, the Spain striker has said. After scoring 65 goals in 102 Premier League appearances for Liverpool, Torres left the club for rivals Chelsea in a £50 million deal in Janaury 2011. Although the Spain international struggled to recapture his form at Stamford Bridge, he is grateful to Gerrard, who was linked with a move to the Blues in the past. The striker, currently on loan at Atletico Madrid from AC Milan, told AS: "Gerrard changed my career, my ambition, the way of raising my goals, the way of wanting to win. He changed everything. "Gerrard talked a lot with me and even when I said that I was leaving Liverpool, he said: 'Think about yourself. Do what's best for you because you have seen how people are leaving and it's time. You have nothing to prove.' "He changed my way of seeing things and showed me that I could get much higher than what I had always thought. I will never find a teammate like him, I am sure." Torres also backed Gerrard to emerge as a star performer in Major League Soccer when he links up with the LA Galaxy on July 1. Information from the Press Association was used in this report.
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