Joe McQuoid
For many competing nations at last summer’s FIFA World Cup the absence of a tide-shifting alternative to the tried and tested frontlines assigned the mission of securing football’s ultimate prize, offered a compelling yet damning narrative.
When Nicolas Anelka or Thierry Henry failed to make a breakthrough, the French held little in reserve. As the Italians desperately offered Fabio Quagliarella and Giampaolo Pazzini at the expense of Alberto Gilardino and Vincenzo Iaquinta, their fate had already been sealed. And the necessity for Fabio Capello to persist with an evidently out-of-nick and misfiring Wayne Rooney provided supporting evidence of England’s overall ineptitude on the world stage.
Perhaps the most unsettling fact of all for the pretenders to digest though was that the side for which the fairytale ending was to soon become a reality were not forced to turn to their contingency plan.
A first game blip aside, Spain, along with the tournament’s joint top scorer David Villa, brushed past all challengers en route to the final with apparent ease, condemning not one but two centre forwards by the name of Fernando to the role of onlooker from the substitutes bench.
Whilst for Liverpool’s Fernando Torres this duty was understandably difficult to stomach, for the other, Athletic Bilbao’s Fernando Llorente, his position as the Spanish plan B provided a fitting and unlikely end to a fine 2009/10 campaign for his club.
With Alvaro Negredo often preferred by Vincent del Bosque as Spain’s third choice striker, Llorente shot into the frame with 14 goals in La Liga, accompanied by another eight in the Europa League, forcing the national coach to reassess his plans for South Africa.
Standing at 6ft 5ins tall, the man dubbed ‘El Rey Leon’ (which translates from Spanish as ‘The Lion King’) offers both a towering presence and great aerial ability, which adds another dimension to a national squad that in recent years has relied on shorter, quick and clinical strikers, such as Villa, Raul Gonzalez and Fernando Morientes.
Although Llorente possesses different, yet distinguishable qualities, there is no doubting the technical ability of a player who is a product of Bilbao’s highly acclaimed youth system, and these attributes coupled with great strength, intelligent movement and a powerful shot have made the 25-year-old one of the hottest properties in Europe.
Born in Pamplona on 26th February, 1985, Llorente has come a long way in the game since making his first strides at a local youth outfit in La Rioja, where he spent much of his early childhood. Aged 11, the forward signed up at Basque club Athletic Bilbao’s youth academy, and was quickly moved through the ranks, with a stint at feeder club CD Baskonia, before joining the club’s reserve side Bilbao Athletic just 12 months later.
After an impressive run of form, Llorente made his first team debut just a month short of his 20th birthday in a 1-1 draw at home to RCD Espanyol, before wrestling his way into coach Ernesto Valverde’s thoughts for the foreseeable future with a hat-trick against UD Lanzarote in the Spanish Cup just three days later.
In a further 19 appearances during the 2004/05 season, the young striker added three more goals to his tally before enduring two frustrating seasons in 2005/06 and 2006/07, with Bilbao narrowly avoiding relegation in both, and working their way through four different managers in the process.
With just 14 goals to his name in over two and a half seasons, Llorente came in for heavy criticism from some sections of the San Mames faithful, before he finally emerged as the club’s first choice striker with a flurry of goals in the second half of the 2007/08 Primera Division campaign.
A steady increase in his proficiency in front of goal and all round contribution has ensued ever since, and after interest in Llorente grew with some of Europe’s top clubs loitering with intent, Bilbao recently reassessed their valuation of the player and renegotiated the buy-out clause in the his contract from €36m, up to a hefty figure of €63m to steady the influx of enquiries.
Although he is unlikely to dislodge Villa as the spearhead of the national side any time soon, Llorente has proved an able deputy in his 13 appearances for Spain under Del Bosque, managing seven goals to date. Most recently in October he scored twice against Lithuania, before hitting a late winner in the 3-2 victory over Scotland at Hampden Park in the European Championship qualifiers.
If Llorente can continue at his current rate of progression, and as expected Real Madrid or another top side that match his ever growing ambitions make a bid for his services in the summer, then there is no guessing the heights that the player could scale in seasons to come.
