Sky Sports' Johnny Phillips: Kicking a ball, and chasing a dream around the world

The event was the culmination of a huge project undertaken by former footballer Sergio Torres and Norwegian film-maker Jasper Spanjaart. Two years ago they set out to tell the colourful story of Torres’s route into the professional game in England. At first glance it looks like another football film, but in reality it is a story about dreams.

Just how far would you go to pursue your dream? Sergio Torres arrived in England, in November 2003, with just a bag of essential belongings and 300 dollars in cash. The 22-year-old from Mar del Plata in Argentina had been working at his father’s brick factory. It was not a job he particularly enjoyed. The long hours and the manual labour took their toll. He often struggled to stay awake; there was one day he was discovered asleep on the toilet.

In his spare time Torres was studying to become a PE teacher, but his real aim was to make it as a professional footballer in Europe. His grandmother was Italian, so a move to Italy or, because of the language, Spain made most sense. They were the preferred destinations for Torres too. But the agent he found, a former player in Argentina with Boca Juniors, thought that his style of play was better suited to English football and decided that’s where Torres should go, once he had saved enough money for his plane ticket.

The agent compiled a rudimentary highlights video of Torres playing for his local club, Banfield, in Mar del Plata. It was poor quality footage but there was enough of the player in action for it to be of some use. He had made a contact with another agent, who promised that he would be able to fix something up for Torres. He distributed the video to clubs in the south of England. Mark McGhee, the Brighton & Hove Albion manager at the time, was sufficiently impressed to offer him a two-week trial. So Torres packed his bags and caught a flight to Gatwick. He spoke very little English at the time, and his first night in the country could not have gone worse.

Torres arrived at Gatwick Airport and remembers spotting his contact, a man he knew only as ‘Roland’, holding up a sheet of A4 paper with ‘Torres’ written on it. On meeting the agent it quickly became clear that all was not as he’d been promised.

“Everything was new, coming to a new country, a new culture and everything like that,” Torres recalls. “The first night he took me to this house, I didn’t know where I was going. It was in Norbury, in South London, and I went quite late at night. I was so tired when I got there, I said ‘I’m going to bed’ but I didn’t really understand how many people were living there.

“I found out there were about five people, family and friends of his also staying in the house. I remember lying on the bed and two hours later someone came in and said ‘Can you move over, I’m sleeping in the same bed as you?’ He was a big fat, hairy man! That first night I didn’t sleep at all. I was looking up to the light coming through the window and thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’”

From such grim beginnings, Torres found his career path. There were more unusual sleeping arrangements over the coming months, including a spell on the boardroom floor of Basingstoke Town Football Club. On match days, Torres would have to pack up his mattress and stash it behind the bar.

Eventually his dream of becoming a professional footballer in England was realised. Spells at Wycombe Wanderers, Peterborough United and Crawley Town followed, including a magical day out at Old Trafford in the FA Cup.

Filmmaker Spanjaart captures a tale of sacrifice and perseverance that took the Argentinian from working morning-shifts at a Boots warehouse to playing at the Theatre of Dreams. Together the two have spent over a year retracing the player’s steps to tell the story of The Unknown Torres.

The documentary project was successfully crowdfunded in February 2018 and produced independently. It cost just £9,000 to make. The film features interviews with former Norwich City captain Russell Martin, who became Torres’ best friend during their time at Wycombe Wanderers, and West Ham’s Pablo Zabaleta, who speaks candidly about his own experience of leaving behind his native Argentina and adjusting to life in England.

“At the end of the day, it’s not a football film, as strange as that may sound. It is a story about life,” Spanjaart says.

“It conveys a message we all need to hear. No matter who you are, or where you are in life, you need to do everything you possibly can to pursue your dreams.”

Torres’s Football League career has come to an end, although he still plays semi-professionally for Eastbourne Borough. He also coaches youngsters at the Russell Martin Academy on the south coast.

Torres turns 38 in July, and his latest dream is to still be playing at the age of 40. “Someone said that once you reach your dream you should continue and keep dreaming,” he added. “My dream now is to stay involved with football.”

The film can be ordered at www.theunknown torres.com