Ferran Torres did not necessarily wait until his arrival at Paris Saint-Germain to reveal his true nature as a goalscorer. At 26, the Parisian forward is confirming an evolution that Marcelino—his former coach at Valencia—had already largely foreseen, as he explains in L’Équipe.
Marcelino: “He’s going to end up as a central striker!”
“He has excellent dribbling skills and pace; he can play in open space but also in tight areas, and even back then, he showed great finishing ability. Highly precise with both feet and his head, he would pick the right pass in the final third when facing the goal. He was already scoring goals—both in training and in matches. During specific shooting drills, the coaching staff would say to each other: ‘Damn, he’s going to end up as a central striker!'”
Marcelino’s account helps place Ferran Torres’s evolution within a consistent trajectory. His ability to play centrally does not look like the artificial transformation of a winger who was simply moved closer to the goal. Even during his Valencia days, his former coach recognized his finishing quality, his two-footedness, and his ability to make the right decisions in the final few meters.
This profile also explains why deploying him as a forward can work in Luis Enrique’s PSG side. Torres retains qualities typically associated with wide players—pace, dribbling, and the ability to operate in tight spaces—while simultaneously posing a genuine threat inside the penalty area. His versatility, therefore, stems not merely from his capacity to play multiple positions, but above all from a combination of qualities rarely found together in a single forward.
