Ferran Torres Cites David Silva as His Role Model Ahead of Man City Debut

Ferran Torres has spoken in glowing terms about his new side and insisted that Manchester City have a good enough squad to compete in 2020/21, even without Lionel Messi.

Joining the Cityzens from Valencia for a fee of around £20m, the forward has come in to replace the already departed Leroy Sane, who completed his much anticipated move to Bayern Munich earlier this window.

To add more excitement to his arrival, Torres was handed the famous number 21 shirt previously worn by David Silva, fellow former Los Che alumni who left the Premier League after ten years with City. For Torres, the chance to wear the jersey worn by his footballing hero is one he considers 'an honour'.

“It was a huge honour for me when the club told me I could choose the 21 shirt,” he told the Independent. “Just for what it means here. We would be waiting for that moment to ask them pictures and signatures [as kids at Valencia]. I remember looking for David Silva above the rest.

"Not just David, I had several pictures of that Valencia squad. It was a great team for a number of years”.

For a while, it looked possible that he could have been joined by Messi, who was angling for a Barcelona departure, only for the Argentine to eventually stay put.

Torres, however, insisted that his new side are more than capable of competing in Europe and beyond, without the need of the Argentine: "I think we have a fantastic team beyond Messi. We have a group of players ready to compete against any opponent and we are able to do great things in the Champions League."

"About a potential arrival of Messi, it is not my job to make any comments about that.”

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