Friday, May 30, 2008

Fernando Torres To Get Liverpool Pay Rise


Liverpool are set to reward Fernando Torres for his outstanding debut season at Anfield by giving the striker an £800,000-a-year pay rise.

The Spain international, who moved to Merseyside from Atletico de Madrid last summer for £21.5 million, was promised when he signed for the club that his salary would be reviewed at the end of his first season in the Premier League.

Torres was so keen to join Liverpool that he actually accepted a drop in his wages, as well as waiving the £3m from the original transfer fee that Atletico owed him but, after scoring an incredible 33 goals in the last campaign, the powers that be at Anfield have agreed to increase his weekly wage packet from £74,000 to the £89,000 that he was paid at the Vicente Calderon.

That works out at an extra £4m for the player over the remaining five years of his contract, but it will be considered a small price to pay by manager Rafael Benitez if it helps to ward off interest from rivals Chelsea, who earlier this week signalled their desire to lure the highly-talented forward away to Stamford Bridge for the start of next season.

It has been reported that Torres' agent, Margarita Garay, was in Liverpool between May 14 and 16 to thrash out the new agreement, with a source close to the player saying: "There has been a meeting between Fernando's people and Liverpool.

"It was very amicable and set the tone for what should be a straightforward negotiation."

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