Torreira, woah!
The figure of Lucas Torreira grew into the hearts of all Uruguayans, as the country advanced into the 2018 Russia World Cup. Then his move to Arsenal came…
Small, fast, precise, and passionate. It seems like those are the ingredients that make the type of footballer this country loves. Especially the passion –or the Garra Charrúa, as we call it.
So during the match against Portugal in the Round of 16, when Torreira became Cristiano Ronaldo’s nightmare, chasing and tackling him down the field, we all realised how important of a player Torreira was for our team.
Then his move to Arsenal was announced. Arsenal is one of those teams you have heard about, even if you do not consider yourself a football connoisseur. So you can tell the move to the North London giant, was in fact, a big deal for us.
Yes, we have Uruguayan players at Barcelona (Suárez), Juventus (Bentancur), or Real Madrid (Valverde), but English football means something else for us, somehow. You are arriving in the land where football was invented, after all.
Hours after the transference was announced in Arsenal’s social media channels, it was everywhere in Uruguayan media outlets. And I am saying ‘everywhere’, because it was literally everywhere. TV, radio, newspapers, and so on.
“When does the Premier League start?”, a common question that was repeated on loop until the Premier League actually kicked off.
The first couple of matches did not go the way fans would have liked. Torreira came in as a sub. Everyone here was like “Once they start Torreira, their performance will change”. I guess my British friend who support the Gunners might have thought the same too. Or we were just hyped to see our midfielder.
When Emery started playing Torreira on their initial XI, and Arsenal had brilliant performances that saw them go undefeated for over twenty matches, the hype was all over the place.
From the sports segment talking about Arsenal, to the news programmes showing the video of Torreira making a mate, you could tell the player who many people did not know by the beginning of 2018, was now big in the country. It reminded me of Suárez’ time at Liverpool. The same league, the same effect.
The humble 22 year-old Arsenal star, whose call up to the World Cup squad was a surprise for lots of people in Uruguay, was becoming something we would brag about (as we always do with things such as winning two World Cups, having legal marijuana, or all the traditions we argue about with Argentina).
His ongoing efforts on the pitch, the way he tackles, and how he seems to be everywhere, was something I would real Arsenal fans praise on Twitter. Fighting every ball and scoring goals (especially his first one for Arsenal in the North London Derby). Torreira became a key player for the Gunners, and that feeling of pride reached a nationwide level.
His goal against Huddersfield, close to the end of the match, which granted Arsenal the three points, was as dramatic (if you want to call it that way), as the one against Tottenham. Once again, Torreira was on every screen around the country.
But we are like that. Coming from a country that is often mistaken for Argentina or Brazil on the maps, football seems to be one of the very few aspects where people have a clear idea of who we are, so when one of our players does well internationally, we get hyped.
Torreira, whose performances are examples of what we like calling the Garra Charrúa, is someone you would hear us talking about for hours. How he stopped Ronaldo in the Round of 16, how he did not let Neymar go past him on a friendly match against Brazil, how everyone at Arsenal loves him…
It is impressive how one man can make a sense of pride grow bigger. “Have you watched Arsenal’s latest match?”, “Did you see how well Torreira did?”. We may be just three million people in Uruguay, but surely Arsenal have three million new supporters now.
We are passionate about football, and we will keep talking about it on and on. So grab a tea, coffee, or a mate if you wish, and let us talk about how Torreira represents the Uruguayan fighting spirit we are always looking for in a player.