As Pablo Torre picked up the ball between the lines and shimmied his way through the Atletico Madrid press for what felt like the umpteenth time, Girona boss Michel was left in no doubt.
The Barcelona loanee, during a dramatic 4-3 victory which lifted La Liga’s Leicester-inspired dark horses level on points with Real Madrid at the top of the table, had announced himself as one of the most talented attacking midfielders in the game.
Not only in Spain. Not only in Europe either, but the entire football-obsessed globe.
“We all know how much quality Pablo has,” Michel beams, his Girona side overcoming an Alvaro Morata hat-trick as Ivan Martin fizzed a 91st minute winner into the top corner (Football Espana).
“This is the Pablo we need. He can help us a lot. (When) turning between the lines, he has so much quality, really. I think his ability to turn is up there with the best in the world.”
Rangers looked at Barcelona’s Pablo Torre
As you might expect, given that Torre joined Barcelona amid comparisons to the Blaugrana’s playmaker extraordinaire Pedri, the former Racing Santander wonderkid has a touch as light as whipped velvet, and the balance of Bolshoi-based ballerina.
He was a paintbrush at the Montilivi, dancing and dotting his way through Atletico’s powertools. Diego Simeone’s wily side had no answer.
Those close to Ibrox may have played down the veracity of the suggestions that Lionel Messi could have ended up wearing the blue of Rangers while still a baby-faced teenager at Barcelona, but will we one day be discussing the club’s fleeting links to Pablo Torre with similar fascination, and a childlike wonder of what might have been?
‘Incredible’
According to the Daily Record, Rangers scouted Torre shortly before Barcelona triggered the £4 million release clause in his Racing Santander contract a year-and-a-half ago.
Now, Torre is pulling the strings for at Girona side who – with 15 wins and one defeat from 19 matches – are starting to look very much like the real deal.
‘The real deal’. Such a phrase feels fitting when discussing the emergence of their Spain under 21 loanee as one of La Liga’s breakout talents too.
“Between the lines, (Torre) is a player who can reach the level of the top footballers,” Michel adds. “He can play in the middle, and has a capacity to play fast, incredible passes.”
