Fernando Torres appears unlikely to stay at Atlético Madrid beyond the summer after reportedly being told by the coach Diego Simeone that he is not wanted for next season.
According to AS, Simeone held talks with the former Liverpool and Chelsea striker when he said he would not be making his current loan from Milan permanent.
Atlético are banned from signing new players for the next two transfer windows as punishment for breaching Fifa rules on registering players aged under 18 and the club would therefore have to sign him in the current transfer window which ends on Monday if they want to keep him at the club past this season.
Asked about Torres this week, Simeone was non-committal: “The other day I said there was nothing to say because there wasn’t. We’ve talked to Fernando and he knows what I think and he’s told me what he feels. The talk remains private. We’ve talked, which is the main thing.”
AS said the club’s chief executive, Miguel Ángel Gil Marín, offered a lifeline to Torres, telling him that Atlético would request a suspension of the transfer ban which might allow him to stay on.
Having spent his golden years with the club, at the age of 31 Torres was keen to see out his career at the Vicente Calderón but with his loan deal running out at the end of this season that possibility is receding. After leaving Atlético in 2007 he played for Liverpool, Chelsea and lately Milan before returning to Madrid a year ago on loan.
