in 11th place. In July 2003, soon after his takeover of the club, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich had a £28 million bid for Torres rejected by Atlético's board of directors. In the 2003–04 season, his second in La Liga, Torres made further strides, scoring 19 league goals in 35 appearances, meaning he finished as the joint third-highest scorer in the league. At age 19, Torres was named Atlético's captain. Atlético narrowly missed out on qualification for the UEFA Cup, but by finishing in seventh place in the 2003–04 season, they qualified for the 2004 UEFA Intertoto Cup, giving Torres a first taste of a competition at the European level. He scored two goals in the two fourth round matches against OFK Beograd, with one coming in each leg. Atlético reached the final, but lost 3–1 on a penalty shoot-out to Villarreal following a 2–2 draw on aggregate. FA Premier League champions Chelsea were believed to be interested in signing Torres during the summer of 2005, but Atlético club president Enrique Cerezo said that they had "no chance" of signing him. Cerezo later said in January 2006 that the club was willing to listen to offers for Torres, and Torres claimed Newcastle United of the FA Premier League had made a bid to sign him in March. Torres stated after the 2006 FIFA World Cup that he had turned down an offer to join Chelsea at the end of the 2005–06 season. He scored 14 league goals in the 2006–07 season. The English media reported that he was the main transfer target of FA Premier League club Liverpool, but Cerezo stated, "We've received no offer from Liverpool or any other club or player." Days later, however, new reports suggested Atlético had agreed a deal with Liverpool for Torres; the fee was rumoured to be £25 million with Luis García moving to Atlético in a separate transfer deal. On 30 June, Atlético announced a deal to sign Diego Forlán from Villarreal, in what was seen as a move to replace Torres before his departure became official. On 2 July, it was reported that Torres had cut short a vacation to fly back to Madrid to finalise the move to Liverpool. The following day, Torres passed a medical at Liverpool's Melwood training ground. He held a press conference in Madrid on 4 July to bid farewell to the Atlético fans, before completing his