Villarreal’s Pau Torres: ‘It’s not normal that a club from such a small town does so well’

The defender on facing Manchester United, winning the Europa League for his hometown club and why he turned down Spurs

The entire town watched as history was made, except Pau Torres, who was making it. It was late on 26 May and Vila-real, population 51,293, was about to become the smallest place to have a football team win a European trophy. Villarreal faced Manchester United, the club with a stadium that could fit them all in and still add 22,847 more, and the biggest game in their history had gone to penalties. Thirteen long, tense minutes later, it was still there. Every outfield player had scored, leaving just one of them.

In the final minutes before the Europa League final the Villarreal manager, Unai Emery, told his team to do it for “Pau’s town”. Aged eight, Torres had cried in the stands when Juan Román Riquelme’s missed penalty denied them a first final. Fifteen years later, having at last reached one, it was on him. Of all the scenarios that had run through his mind since he first attended El Madrigal aged three and joined the club at six, this wasn’t one. Not even when they reached the shoot-out.

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