Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has reportedly invited Fernando Torres to Anfield this week as he continues his coaching journey.
Torres spent four years at Liverpool as a player, scoring 81 goals in 142 appearances, and has moved into coaching following his retirement in 2019. The 40-year-old returned to his boyhood club Atletico Madrid in 2021 to work with their under-19 side.
According to a report from Spanish outlet Marca, Torres has returned to Anfield to shadow Klopp ahead of Liverpool's Premier League game against Brighton on Sunday. The report states that the purpose of the trip is for Torres to gain first-hand management experience from one of the best in the business.
The visit comes at a time when Liverpool are searching for a new manager, with Klopp set to step down from his role at the end of the season. Torres' former Reds teammate Xabi Alonso had been heavily linked with the job, having impressed at Bayer Leverkusen.
However, he has announced that he will not be leaving Leverkusen this summer, with the club on the verge of winning their first-ever Bundesliga title. "It's been a season we have had a lot of speculation regarding my future," Alonso said on Friday.
"Until now we have had so many games, been pretty busy and focused, and I wanted to reflect during the international break and take a decision. Last week I had a very good meeting when I informed of them [Leverkusen's directors] of my decision to continue being coach of Bayer Leverkusen.
"For sure all the decisions you need to analyse well. I try to take the right ones, I try to take them in a natural way. At the moment this is the right place for me to develop as a coach, I am a young coach. Right now this is the right place."
Torres has also been backed to become a successful manager when the time comes, with former Atletico coach Armando de la Morena telling AS in 2022: "A coach like Fernando, knowing his career a bit, as a player and always with the respect that he has acted, has the conditions to be a great coach.
"I know it from the players too, who tell me wonders about him, how he transmits, how he gives them the concepts. So what I see in him is that if everything is going the right way, then we have a future coach for Spanish football and for Atletico and hopefully for the national team as well.
"He spoke very well to you even when he was still a kid, 17, 18 years old. He is always respectable both on and off the field, for his manners and behaviour. After all, a coach has to be that. An example both outside and inside the field. And he meets those conditions."
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