La Liga Player Profile: Fernando Llorente Torres
Fernando Llorente, who currently plays for Athletic Bilbao plays at the center forward position in the Spanish football league also known as La Liga. Fernando was born in Pamplona, Spain and in 1996, the Spanish international joined Athletic Bilbao’s youth system.
He was just eleven years old when he entered the football academy and was granted admission due to his Navarese background. After spending several years in various youth levels at Bilbao, he moved to CD Baskonia in Spanish football’s fourth division, which is a well known feeder club for Bilbao since the past 13 years.
In a total of thirty three appearances for Baskonia, Llorente impressed coaches at Athletic Bilbao’s first team and the club called him back to its reserve team squad. At that time Athletic were languishing in Segunda Division B also known as the second division of Spanish football.
During his first season for Bilbao, Fernando performed remarkably well in the first 16 games of the season as he scored four goals for Athletic Bilbao. On January 16th, 2005 Bilbao awarded his reserve team performances with a first team debut against Espanyol. Athletic’s match against Espanyol ended nil all. Llorente again featured for Bilbao in one of their Spanish Cup encounters with UD Lanzarote, during the match in question Llorente scored three times in a 6-0 win for his club side.
He also played in the UEFA Cup match against FK Austria but he failed to score against the Austrian side. Fernando Llorente scored in the remaining 14 league games of the season and scored three goals during these appearances. Before the 2005-2006 season began, Llorente’s shirt number was changed from 32 to 9, which signaled his club’s intent of retaining him as their top marksman.
Fernando featured in Bilbao’s first game of the season against their rivals Real Sociedad. He failed to score during the match but nonetheless he linked up well with his team mates as Athletic won the match by three goals to nil. Llorente’s rest of the season was plagued by injuries like a knee strain, gastroenteritis and muscle strains.
The Spanish international finished the 2005-2006 season, with just four goals, two of them came in the league and two in the Spanish Cup as well. On 13th of July, 2006 Fernando Llorente signed an extended contract with Athletic Bilbao which included a buy-out clause between 30 to 50 million Euros. 2006-2007 season began with Llorente competing amongst Etxeberria, Urzaiz and Aduriz as the clubs leading striker but his club’s poor form coupled with manager Felix Sarriugate’s rotation strategy saw the Spanish striker making his way back into the starting lineup.
Fernando Llorente Torres finished the 2006-2007 season with two goals in only thirty three matches, however he did score one of his most crucial goals for the club against Valencia in a one all away draw in a Spanish league tie between the two teams. Llorente exploded onto the scene in the 2007-2008 season as he scored 11 league goals for Athletic Bilbao. Most of his goals came against top ranked teams in the Spanish league such as Barcelona, Villarreal and Athletico Madrid.
In his last two seasons at Bilbao, Fernando scored six and eleven goals respectively. He also scored eight goals in the Europa League and in doing so he led the goal scoring charts during the 2009-2010 version of the competition.
Recently Fernando played for Spain in the FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa, Spain won the final match of the tournament against the Dutch and Fernando Llorente became the first player in Bilbao’s history to win the World Cup for Spain while playing for the club.
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