Fernando
in 2026

In June 2024 Torres received the UEFA Pro License, four years after beginning his studies. He defended his thesis titled Psychological Training of Young Strikers at the Academy to Reserve Boundary. The grade was 9.5 out of 10. On the defense panel were Vicente del Bosque and Jose Mourinho (as an invited UEFA expert). Mourinho said after the defense in Mundo Deportivo: If this were my academy, I would have Torres working with the first team already this season.

The 2024/2025 season for Atletico B was a breakthrough. Under Torres the team won their Primera RFEF group IV, passed the playoff, and were promoted to Segunda (the second tier) for the first time since 2000. This brought Torres recognition primarily inside the club hierarchy. He began to be considered as a candidate for the first team should Diego Simeone ever leave. Asked about this in Marca in June 2025, Simeone answered: I am not leaving. But if I were, Fernando would be the best option. He understands the DNA of this club better than anyone on my staff.

The 2025/2026 season (current) is Atletico B first in Segunda. The task is to stay in the division. As of this publication (October 2026) the team sits mid-table, which is a success for the debut season. Torres remains head coach.

One of the most discussed aspects of the current Torres life is his physical shape. At 42 he weighs around 82 kilograms (the same as his peak career weight), body-fat percent is 8 (low even for a 42-year-old), bench press 120 kilograms. He regularly posts from the Atletico weight room, where he trains every morning before the team sessions.

His training program is four blocks a week: two cardio (10km run on off-road terrain), two strength (squat, deadlift, bench, core work). In his own words to Men's Health Spain in 2025: I train so that if needed I could play. I am not planning a return. But physical shape gives me the freedom to feel like a person, not a veteran. This matters when you are 42 and still work with footballers between 20 and 25.

The Torres diet is high-protein Spanish cuisine: meat, fish, olive oil, stewed vegetables. He has not eaten white bread for eight years. He has not drunk beer since 2007 (quit when he moved to Liverpool). He allows himself a glass of red wine twice a week, which is a Spanish cultural norm he does not consider a regime violation.

Alongside the Atletico B head coach role, Torres is a consultant to the club academy on the striker development program. He works with juniors ages 14 to 16, teaching them what he learned from the academy in 1995 and after: how to read the game, how to work with space in the opposition box, how to deal with the psychological pressure of breaking into the first team. He runs sessions once a week on Wednesday mornings when Atletico B has its day off.

Several of his academy students have already debuted in the first team. Pablo Barrios, a defender whom Torres called his favorite student of his coaching career, broke into La Liga starts in 2024 and the Champions League in 2025. Moussa Diarra, a left winger Torres mentored for two years, broke into the Mali national team in 2026. These were the first students of the Torres program to make it to the professional level.

Torres also works with the club psychological program. He gives consultations to young players going through difficult periods: early injuries, loan transfers, moves to other clubs. He shares his experience of moving to Liverpool at 23, to Chelsea at 26, returning to Atletico at 30. These sessions are closed and never published, but the club officially includes them in the player support program.

In 2026 Torres has 25 million Instagram followers, 8 million on X (Twitter), and rarely appears in media. His strategy is to show family, training, team work. No commercial advertisement posts. His Nike contract ended in 2020 and he refused to extend. He explained in interview that he no longer wants to be the face of a brand.

The one exception is his participation in the documentary series The Beautiful Game Spain, where he narrates the history of twenty-first-century Spanish football. The series was released on DAZN in 2024 and performed strongly in Spain and England. The series has a fifth episode entirely dedicated to Torres: his childhood in Fuenlabrada, his career at Atletico, Liverpool, Chelsea. He speaks there openly about moments he had never commented on before in interviews.

In 2026 Torres also opened the Fernando Torres Football Academy in Fuenlabrada, in his native La Ruta district. The academy operates free of charge for children from low-income families. He is personally present there once a month. The project is funded from his own funds and the sponsorship of Atletico Madrid.

Torres plans for the next few years are to stay in the Atletico structure, to continue working with Atletico B and the academy. He has not sought offers from other clubs, although around a dozen arrived during 2025 and 2026 (Bologna in Serie A, Leyton Orient in the Championship, Bayern as the assistant for the youth coach). He refused all of them. In the Marca interview of August 2026 he said: I will work at Atletico as long as the club wants me. This is not nostalgia. This is a conscious choice.

As a potential candidate for the Atletico Madrid first team head coach position in the future, Torres is widely discussed. Diego Simeone stays at the club but his contract ends in June 2027. According to club sources, in President Cerezo notes there is a scenario Simeone goes to the technical direction and Torres goes to the bench of the first team for the 2027/2028 season. This is not confirmed publicly and remains at the level of a plan, but all the signs point exactly in this direction.