Chelsea star Fernando Torres has revealed the inspirationbehind his medal-laden career - not Pele, Diego Maradona or Johan Cruyff, but aJapanese cartoon called Captain Tsubasa.
The Spanish striker, who has a World Cup, two EuropeanChampionships and a Champions League title to his name, said his love for thegame owes its origins to a popular manga animation he watched as a boy.
"I remember when I was a kid, we couldn't find thesignal really well on TV, but everyone in school was talking about this cartoonabout football, from Japan," he said.
"It was a series called Oliver y Benji in Spain, and inJapan it was Captain Tsubasa, and these two young players started as youth teamplayers, got into the national team, won the World Cup, and moved to Barcelonaand Bayern Munich, then moved to Europe, so it was like a dream.
"I started playing football because of this, andbecause my brother forced me, and I loved the cartoon," he added incomments published on the Chelsea website.
"I wanted to be Oliver, because he played out on thefield and Benji was the goalkeeper. That was the first contact I had withJapan."
