Who is Pau Torres, the anonymous substitute for Piqué in the Spanish team?

• GROUP 4..This is the classification

Except because he measures 1.92 and because, in the end, the one who is a professional footballer walks like a professional footballer and looks like a professional footballer, probably no one would recognize, during a walk along Gran Vía,

(Villarreal, 23 years old ) as the central head of the Spanish soccer team, the guy who, two years later, has managed to take the place of

, Sergio Ramos' new teammate, who has been looking for

- also

- since that time.

Artido of the round of 16 of the 2018 World Cup against Russia, the last of Piqué's 102 appearances, within that with 'Lucho' there are very few fixed things (

, Ramos,

and little else), it does seem that, after a two-year casting, Pau has come to stay.

At least, he has played the last four official games as a starter and tonight, against Switzerland, he will repeat alongside the captain.

The truth is that, whether he affirms it or not, the data is clear, and that it was Robert Moreno who offered him his first summons, now just a year ago.

"I like everything about Pau, he's tall, handsome ...", jokes the coach, who becomes more serious: "I like his personality, his way of playing from behind, filtering passes, which is something we ask for His tactical sense, how he marks the same height as the defensive line ... "Since Piqué, who played 51 times with Ramos, left, the list of centrals who have gone through the selection calls is long.

and Pau himself.

In total, 10. Of them, those who have shared the most starting eleven with the captain are Iñigo Martínez (4 times) and Nacho, Hermoso and Albiol (3 each).

Tonight, the Villarreal central defender will complete his fifth game, if he is not expelled or injured.

It will also do so with the qualification for the 'Final Four' of the Nations League at stake.

Spain must win tonight to depend on itself in the last match against Germany, which hosts Ukraine, third in a qualifying group where everyone has options, faster than their stature indicates, with good ball handling, their tranquility, on and off the pitch, was one of the things that always defined a boy who his grandfather had taken to the Villarreal sports center since, at the age of five, he entered one of the best quarries in Europe.

He went up steps and in the juvenile yellow he coincided with

, who shortly after, and after going through a loan at Málaga in the Second Division, was the one who gave him the opportunity in the First Division.

Emery, this course, maintains that unshakeable confidence.

QUIETLY

Torres' case is also curious because he has not played in any of the lower categories of the national team.

Well, a game with the U21s, but that's how it is.

And it's strange, because the vast majority of absolute internationals were before in almost all the previous steps.

It was not the case of Pau, a boy who has just become independent, but who continues to live in Villarreal, "the town", as he says, where he continues to have his parents and his lifelong friends at hand, with whom He went to take that test without having started Primary. Discreet, the confinement caught him alone, but he also decided that he should stay that way, because he has a medical relative and wanted at all costs to avoid getting or infecting him.

During those weeks, as he himself recounted in a video published by his club, he took the opportunity to improve in the kitchen (he cooked following the instructions given by the club, and when in doubt he would FaceTime with his brother) and also improve his English, something that gives an idea of ​​the concerns of a "very calm" kid, as explained from within the Las Rozas concentration.

His musical tastes go through

Dani Martin

,

Tow

and a Uruguayan group called

The sow candle

, who make a type of music that, well, apparently is music. Left-handed, which makes him a protected species in football (there are very few left-handed centrals), his sense of the game and his peripheral vision allow him to have impeccable placement at all times.

His coaches emphasize the ability to adapt to the orientation of the play almost naturally.

Not a year ago Villarreal renewed him until 2024, with a clause of

50 million euros

, a money that, despite the discretion with which the boy handles himself, begins to be sensed as scarce for the projection he has.

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