Pablo Torre//Lamine Yamal / Tribuna.com Collage: Cadena SER//Getty Images

Pablo Torre, who left Barcelona this summer to join RCD Mallorca in search of confidence and playing time, opened up about his career, his growth as a player, and his admiration for teammates and clubs in a recent interview with Radio MARCA Baleares.

Torre highlighted his experience playing alongside Barcelona prodigy Lamine Yamal, praising his talent and physical abilities. “Easy. He is crazy at 18 now, but everything he has done at 17, even at 16, is incredible talent. I don’t need to say anything. Technically he is amazing, but now, even physically, he is an animal, he can make efforts all the time, repeat actions, go for you, beat you, have fun… he is incredible,” Torre said.

On Lamine’s potential, he did not hesitate. “Yes,” he said when asked if he would give the Ballon d’Or to the teenager this year.

Looking back at his transition from Racing Santander to Barcelona, Torre admitted the leap was huge. “It’s an enormous jump, obviously, and you go from playing with very good players like at Racing to playing ‘with crazy people, football maniacs.’ At first, it’s true, it cost me a bit in every sense, because suddenly I had Busquets sitting next to me. It was a bit difficult, but once you get into the rhythm, you see they are normal people, and after two months I was one of them. Like I said before, I don’t regret going there at all, even if I didn’t play all I wanted, because I think I am 500 times a better footballer than I was at Racing.”

When asked why he chose Barcelona originally, Torre answered simply: “Because it was my dream to play at Barca.” He added that he does not regret his past decisions: “No, nothing at all.”

Reflecting on the lessons learned from his career so far, Torre emphasized patience and hard work. “That you have to have a lot of patience and work, because in the end everything comes. It’s true you have bad days when you don’t play, especially when you’re alone, but I think that also helps you mature in every sense, both off the field and on it, and I think that’s about patience and hard work.”

Torre also offered his perspective on the football world in response to Mbappe’s recent comments about professional pressures: “I think it’s our passion, and we kind of ignore those bad things because we love what we do, at least that’s how it is for me and surely for Mbappe too. But well, in that sense, I understand what he says, but I love playing football, I love being surrounded by my teammates on the field with so many people in the stadiums, and for me, being a professional footballer is a dream.”