Football
Dermot Corrigan, Madrid correspondent 8y

Atletico Madrid's Fernando Torres: I don't feel part of Spain team

Atletico Madrid striker Fernando Torres has played down speculation his current burst of form could bring an international recall -- saying he no longer feels part of the Spain setup.

Torres famously scored the winning goal in the Euro 2008 final, and also contributed to his country's victories in the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 tournament, where he finished as joint top-scorer.

In total he has scored 38 goals in 110 games for his country, but last featured when scoring in a 3-0 'dead rubber' World Cup group win over Australia, which was not enough to avoid La Roja exiting the 2014 World Cup in embarrassing fashion in the group stages.

At 32 now, it had seemed his international career was over -- but five goals in his last seven games as Atletico chase a Champions League and La Liga double has lead to calls for national coach Vicente Del Bosque to bring him back for the summer's tournament in France.

Asked about this possibility by Radio Marca, the one-time Liverpool, Chelsea and AC Milan forward said he felt that his time with Spain was over now.

"I've been away from the national team for two years, since the World Cup," Torres said.

"I don't feel part of it any more so I'd rather not talk too much about it. What I would have liked to happen, well I'll keep that to myself. I'm not thinking about the summer -- just about Rayo Vallecano on Saturday."

Pressed on the matter, Torres changed the subject to say he agreed with the many pundits now calling for young Atletico midfielder Saul Niguez to get a first senior Spanish call following his superb performance and solo goal in Wednesday's 1-0 Champions League semifinal first-leg win against Bayern Munich.

"They should call up Saul," he said. "I hope it does happen, it's the next step he deserves. He will play many games with Spain. But it is up to the coach -- for me it is just about Saturday."

With his current Atletico deal ending in June, it seemed just a few months ago -- as he approached his 32nd birthday while going 19 games and five months stuck on 99 goals for the Estadio Vicente Calderon club -- that Torres would be moving on this summer.

But his recent form has brought an expectation that he will remain at his boyhood club, although again Torres himself was not keen to make any predictions on this.

"I live in the present," he said. "That is the most important thing -- to stay in the present that we have now."

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