Sergio Torres fears Brexit could end the fairy tale careers of overseas footballers in Britain
Exclusive interview: Having arrived in England with £150 in his pocket and a vocabulary consisting of less than 10 words, Torres has spent 15 years playing in England’s lower leagues
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Your support makes all the difference.For a player who was born in Argentina, met a Russian who had moved to Germany and then settled in England on an Italian passport, Sergio Torres is ideally placed to comment on the uncertainty that Brexit has created among the country’s sizeable immigrant football population.
Currently with Eastbourne in the National League South, Torres is a man who has won the hearts of fans wherever his remarkable career has taken him.
But now the man who arrived in England with £150 in his pocket and an English vocabulary consisting of less than 10 words, fears that fairy tales like his may no longer be possible once the country’s choatic exit from the EU is confirmed in 2019.
“I love this game and I love this country,” he says. “I’ve been in England for 15 years now and we’re really settled. We live in Brighton and I have a full-time job in my friend’s academy [set up by former Norwich player, Russell Martin].
“I met my wife in Dortmund on a pre-season tour with Wycombe. Paul Lambert was the manager at the time and she was working at the hotel we were staying at. She came to England to study and now we’ve got two kids and are married. Crazy.
“Of course we were worried when the result of the vote came because I have an Italian passport, my wife has a German passport and so do my two kids. I try to look at the news every day to see what’s going on but I’m lost to be fair.
“All my friends are English and none of them voted for Brexit but I don’t feel any different, I don’t feel as though anyone is treating us differently.I suppose the worry is that young footballers in the future won’t have the chance to come here and play football.
“There are so many more opportunities here than almost anywhere else in the world. There are four professional leagues, which you just don’t get elsewhere. You can earn a living playing in the fourth division of English football, where else would you get that chance?”
Torres himself began his life in England by combining his football career with non-league Basingstoke with shelf stacking at the local Boots.
Spells at Wycombe, Peterborough, Lincoln City and Crawley followed, as did an appearance at Old Trafford as the latter reached the fifth round of the FA Cup as a non-league club under Steve Evans.
For a kid from Mar del Plata – the largest beach resort in Argentina – is was the realisation of a dream that may only have been possible in England. No wonder Torres is looking for investors to produce a documentary detailing his remarkable adventure.
“I think about it all the time – people would say I was crazy to come over here with nowhere to stay and with no money but I wanted to pursue my dreams,” he says.
“In Argentina I would probably never have made a living as a professional footballer. I tried but I couldn’t make it. Over here, I’ve loved every day I’ve been involved in football and everyday I’ve had here in England. It’s such a beautiful country to live in, it’s a beautiful country with beautiful people.
“But at the moment, there’s a lot hatred out there, particularly on social media. It’s sad. It seems to be the older generation driving this, people who want to keep England for the English but the future of any country is its youth.
“I just hope that whatever ends up happening it works out being best for my kids, your kids, everyone’s kids because this is going to impact people for generations to come.”
Back in the present, Torres is still running around like a 22-year-old in the Eastbourne midfield and hasn’t given up on adding another chapter to his remarkable tale.
“Every game I’m playing, I’m thinking – is this the last one? But I’ll keep running until I can’t do it anymore,” he says.
“I’m quite fit, I love running around, I haven’t lost that part of my game. Everyone says your legs go when you get to the age of 30 but I’m showing that’s not the case. Could I still do a job in the Football League? Of course I could!”
It’s the sort of belief that has sustained him since he touched down on English soil. He hopes that others with similar dreams will still be able to realise them.
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