Former Spanish international Curro Torres was part of the legendary Valencia CF team that won 2 ‘Ligas’ and the UEFA cup with Rafa Benítez making his mark as a then youngish manager in his mid-forties. Indeed, UEFA ranked Valencia CF as ‘best team in the world’ in 2004. Now, Curro Torres is in his mid-forties and has actually been a football coach for exactly a decade. After shining at ‘Valencia Mestalla’, the former player has been around a lot in Spain (Lorca, Cordoba, Cultural Leonesa or Lugo), but he has also tried his hand at coaching abroad. He was in charge of NK Istra in Croatia and now he has made his mark in Estonia with FCI LEVADIA TALLINN by winning both the league and the cup this season! Curro Torres is becoming a really promising youngish coach to watch out for,  regarding the bigger leagues in the future.

 Valencia

1)  What have you made of Peter Lim’s reign as Valencia owner? Has it been positive or negative? There was plenty of hope in the early years with lots of investment and some good teams too…even though the club was not particularly stable in the way it was being run. In more recent times, the club has become more irregular on many fronts.

2) Can Valencia return to its best days under Lim? Yes, Valencia could return to its best days it if there is proper economic investment and a real & serious commitment  regarding the project by the current owner.

3) Tell us a little about your connection to Valencia and their fans.

I have a very good relationship with the Valencia fans. They are “muy exigente” (very demanding) but I have no complaints at all. It was a joy to play for them and they showed me real affection too. I was fortunate to have played in the best epoch of Valencia CF.

Playing

4) Tell us a little about your relationship with Rafa Benítez. You played for him at Tenerife before his move to Valencia. How was he as a coach at Tenerife and can you see his development over the years since then? Should he be working in one of the big leagues today? Rafa Benítez was the same at Tenerife as he was at Valencia CF, methodical and effective.  He had the real capacity to get the very best out of his players, in many aspects. It’s perhaps not very nice to experience first-hand being pushed to the very limit as a footballer… by a very demanding manager.  However, with hindsight, you realize what a special manager and special person Rafa Benitez was and still is. Off the pitch, I saw a lot of humanity in his approach and you learn from those unique qualities too. Without doubt, it was enriching as a player and as a person to have been managed by Rafa Benítez. I have followed his trajectory and he has applied the same demanding approach at different clubs but it hasn’t always worked out because the players are different, like Benitez’s difficult time at Real Madrid…for example. However, Benítez is a very ambitious and there is no doubt that he has achieved a lot at top level over the years in the world of football. Yes, I believe Rafa Benitez deserves to be managing again, at top level, when the time is right. On the outside, from his base in England, he is always assessing and observing football and the major leagues, especially. Regarding the talk of coming back to Valencia one day…If he were to come back to Valencia CF, I feel that he would only agree to it (via the owners) with the promise of a guaranteed & really solid project and long-term plan for success.

5) Who was the best player you played with? How good was Pablo Aimar? I played with a truly great team of players at Valencia CF with a lot of hunger for success…it was a real unit. So, it would be really unfair to single out any individual player. Pablo Aimar was really special and not just as a footballer. He made a difference on the pitch and was magnificent as a person off the pitch too. I’m happy the way things have worked out for him in football. I think he will be good as a coach too… as he is clear about his objectives.

6) Was it exciting to be part of Valencia during your time given their power in the transfer market and challenging for honours? Kluivert, Villa, Aimar – Valencia built some exciting teams during your time there…Yes, it was a very exciting time to be playing at Valencia with young players and some solid teams too. It was a buzz to be playing alongside players Iike David Villa, Pablito Aimar and Patrick Kluivert …and I would include David Silva and Juan Mata too. Perhaps the team didn’t always win trophies like the Benitez era but it was still a special time. Patrick (Kluivert) was a superb striker and had been one of the best in the world and it was a joy to play & train with him. However, by the time he was playing at Valencia his injuries didn’t quite allow him to be the very top player he had been before.

7)  How good was Pablo Hernández as a young player? A quiet and reserved lad off the pitch, a hard-working player on the pitch… who made his way into the first team at Valencia CF through merit. If I remember rightly, he had been on loan at Cadiz and then played at Getafe before making it to the top at Valencia CF. He spent quite a few years at Leeds Utd too and won awards there like Player of the Year. So, his trajectory as a player has been admirable.

Coaching

8) Could you comment on Man Utd midfielder Dylan Levitt’s time at NK Istra? We know you only had a short time with NK Istra, but from the research and background you did when taking the job… was is it a good platform for a young British player like Levitt to showcase his talent? Yes, I think it was a good place for Dylan Levitt to grow and progress as a player as the atmosphere is somewhat more relaxed and less pressured in that league…for a British player that is still developing. He is now at Hibernian.

9) Why didn’t it work out for you in Croatia? The conditions were not appropriate for our objectives, things like the training ground not being up to scratch, inconsistencies with the materials available and the kit-man department. I felt a bit bad leaving because I got on well with the players. It was a club that is in the process of being constructed.

10) Would you try coaching abroad again? Could England interest you? Yes, I would consider coaching abroad. England has one of the best leagues in the world. When I was in Croatia, I communicated with the players in my Basic English and I would love the chance to work abroad and improve on my English again!

11) What about your time working with Ferran Torres? How does he compare with the players you’ve coached? How good did become from working with Pep Guardiola? A great player with clearly so much potential. Ferran Torres is a potent player going forward. I believe that where Guardiola was developing him at Manchester City is in his relation to playing football with other players on the pitch, his association with them… his passing and positioning. By already moving his position on the pitch, Guardiola was really developing Ferran as a footballer to, eventually, reach his full potential. He is now at FC Barcelona, which is the absolute peak for any young player. Hansi Flick is doing great work with the squad.

 12) How did you find working with Nuno while in charge of Valencia Mestalla? Any surprise over how well he’s done with Wolves and other teams? I had a very good relationship working with Nuno and very respectful too. He is a hard-working manager who knows what he wants. I’m not at all surprised that he was successful at Wolves.

LaLiga

13) Which right-backs/wing-backs do you admire in the game today? Why? In the past, Cafu was always a reference for me. I would also include Zanetti and Míchel Salgado.  In today’s game, for their power and positioning and understanding of the game… I would rate Carvajal.

Meistriliiga (ESTONIAN  LEAGUE)

 14) Curro Torres, congratulations for winning the double in Estonia this season…both the Cup and ‘Meistriliiga’ league with FCI LEVADIA TALLINN! Could you tell us how your team won the league, the preparation, the training and what the competition is like in Estonia? To try and sum it up for you, this is my second season managing pretty much the same squad of players as my first season. Indeed, in the first season there were many new players and the technical staff was completely new too. We were trying to adapt to each other and find how we worked together. In the first season, we came quite close to our objectives.

All of this helped for this season, in terms of getting off to a really good start and being very clear about what our objectives were in this second season. In terms of work, the footballers felt much more comfortable in terms of play and our aims too. There were a few adjustments and nuances that helped the squad, having an additional new player here or there too. Also, we were able to have our pre-season in Spain against good level teams. This pushed us and enabled that the players were in top form in terms of fitness by the time the team began the new season in the Estonian league.

 Also, we have been able to count on the large majority of the squad during the season regarding injuries. The club did sell 3 players last summer, so we had to adapt our way of playing a bit, it’s true. That said, 2 or 3 players did get injured in the final stages of the season but it did not affect the overall team’s performance at all.

To give you a comparison, in last season’s Estonian league it’s a question of small details. We lost key matches against teams that closed ranks and played very defensively. We lost points, lacked experience and lacked a bit of good fortune in those matches last season.

However, this season, with more experience as a team and more unity…we were able to beat the key teams who were using defensive tactics and we were able to find a way to beat them tactically too and get the much needed points.

I truly believe that we have been very consistent this season. Indeed, we ended up winning the league title with 15 points more than the runner’s up. We were demanding of ourselves and motivated playing against the top teams and we maintained a ‘winning mentality’ right to the very end of the season. Now, we are on a break. So, it’s a question of preparing for next season with the new challenges and opportunities that will come.

I’m currently on holiday with my family in Spain. I’m sad about what happened regarding the whole situation of LA DANA in Valencia (the recent tragic floods in Spain that killed over 200 people). From abroad in Estonia, it is perhaps not possible to understand the horror of the situation until you are actually in the Valencia region, to see families who have lost everything, their property and their loved ones too. However, I know that the Valencian people are strong and will eventually find a way to move forward from this terrible tragedy. We must all try to find a way that we can help them too.

Interview by Will McCarthy

Article copyright ’24/7 Valencia’