Ask any football fan who is currently the best player in the world and you can pretty much guarantee they will pick from a pretty short list: Rooney, Kaka, Messi, Fabregas, Henry, Totti, Ronaldinho, Pato, Gerrard or Ronaldo (the less injured one).

All of those to a man would be worthy winners of the title. All are supremely talented, skilful individuals who are generally a pleasure to watch and a joy to behold.

But, in my mind there is one crucial omission from that list. A player I genuinely believe is one of the finest, if not the finest, currently plying his trade on the football pitch. Yet someone who would more than likely be overlooked by most people. And that player is Fernando Torres.

The Liverpool and Spain striker would get my vote hands down. I have been watching his development over the course of the season with increasing awe.

I don't mind admitting that when he first moved to Anfield I thought he would struggle to adapt to English football. I had, up to that point, only ever seen him play for Spain. And while he looked pretty handy at international level, I thought he would disappear amid the hustle and bustle of the Premier League.

I remember thinking Rafa Benitez had been blinded into spending £20 million on the striker by the fact that he was a fellow Spaniard and that he had nice hair.

Here comes another expensive failure, I smirked to myself. What I hadn't taken into consideration, apparently, was the simple fact that Torres is a truly outstanding player. Rarely, if ever, have I seen someone who combines speed, strength, athleticism and a natural instinct for scoring goals so beautifully.

His record this season has been sensational and he has already scored 26 goals in 35 games. And the figure would be much higher if it wasn't for Benitez' ludicrous rotation policy and the fact that he is playing for a Liverpool team that is, to be polite, hampered by overwhelming mediocrity.

Yes, he has Gerrard playing just behind him and occasionally Babel or Benayoun on the wing, but for the most part he has to make do with likes of Kewell, Voronin and Pennant.

And Torres is still banging them in despite being forced to play in the same team as Dirk Kuyt for much of the season. And that is a triumph of determination over adversity.

Can you imagine, just for a second, how many goals Torres would score playing week-in, week-out for Manchester United or Arsenal. It's scary.

So why doesn't he make it onto most people's shortlist for best player in the world? I have no idea. Maybe it's because the one thing he lacks is flair. Unlike the other names on the list there are no fancy flicks or nutmegs from Torres, just good simple attacking play. The Spaniard runs past his man and scores. Simple. Ronaldo, for example, beats his man, does three stepovers and then goes back to beat his man again, just because he can.

And that type of showboating, unfortunately, makes Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Messi more popular with the masses than someone who 'merely' scores goals.

At just 23, there is plenty of room for improvement in Torres' game as strikers don't really peak till their late 20s. Maybe then, when he is still banging them in regularly for club and country, the masses will realise you don't need to be fancy to be great.

Until then I will just sit back and enjoy watching someone who, in my mind, is as close to centre forward perfection as is humanly possible.

In fact, as far as I can see, he only has one flaw - the fact that he wasn't born in England to English parents. And that's no bull.

Paying the penalty

Hearty congratulations to Everton and Tottenham for keeping up the long-standing tradition of English teams losing vital matches on penalties.

Despite neither club having an English manager they both, almost simultaneously, managed to maintain the tradition on Wednesday night in the UEFA Cup.

Everton went out to Fiorentina after a spirited display at Goodison Park while Spurs lost to PSV Eindhoven in Holland - both games settled by spot-kicks after extra time was unable to separate them.

I'm not absolutely sure, but for one country to lose two teams on penalties in one competition on the same night must be some sort of bad luck record.

At least we know where the national team gets its penalty-taking skills.

A league of their own

A Champions League quarter-final draw containing four English teams was always likely to throw up an all-Premiership encounter and that it did in the form of Arsenal vs Liverpool.

Interestingly it will mean the clubs will play each other three times in a week with a league match sandwiched between the two European legs. And neither team will be looking forward to that.

However, Chelsea and Manchester United will be altogether happier with the outcome of Friday's draw. The London side drew Ferberbache who are arguably the weakest team left in the competition while United got Roma, the team they spanked 7-1 last season.

Personally I am not particularly bothered which one of the four English teams makes it through to the final, as long as one does. Having said that I don't particularly want to see an all-English affair in Moscow. Somehow it would devalue the competition.

Then again, if that does happen Fifa will only have themselves to blame for lowering the qualification standards to include as many big teams as possible.

And to me nothing will ever be able to devalue the Champions League more than the fact that you don't need to be champion to play in it.

Rediscovering the magic

I was having a chat with a colleague this week about the FA Cup and he told me what a disastrous season it has been for the world's oldest knockout tournament.

"It's ridiculous," he said, expecting me to agree with him, "not one big club left in the last four."

Ridiculous? No. Refreshing? Absolutely. A season when somebody other than a big boy wins the trophy is exactly what the competition needed.

For too long Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool have dominated the tournament and, as a result, it has started to lose a bit of its magic.

The whole beauty of a knock-out competition like the FA Cup is that everybody starts off equal. And that means the little clubs have just as much of mathematical chance of winning as the big ones.

Obviously that isn't going to happen very often. But it is the dream of going on a good cup run or maybe even making it all the way to Wembley that keeps the season alive for supporters of 'lesser' clubs.

Take Barnsley, for example. Their supporters have had little to cheer about this season in terms of the league. But victories over Liverpool and Chelsea have provided welcome relief from their Championship woes.

The fact they are now just 90 minutes away from the final is the stuff of fairytales and who would begrudge them their moment of hard-earned glory? Certainly nobody who really loves football.

The same goes for the other three semi-finalists. Portsmouth, West Brom and Cardiff are all where they are on merit and anybody who says otherwise needs a good slapping.

I am reasonably sure that normal service will be resumed next season with the top teams fighting it out for the trophy. They will have been stung by their combined failure this season and will be putting extra effort into ensuring the same thing doesn't happen again.

But for now let's just enjoy the moment. A year when the FA Cup proved it is a tournament for every club and not just a plaything, an entertaining distraction if you like, for the high and the mighty.

Thinking outside the box

American endurance specialist and part-time magician David Blaine is said to be heartbroken that one of his records has been shattered.

Back in 2003, Blaine spent 44 days suspended in a perspex box high in the air over the River Thames doing little but read books and drink water. At the time it looked like one of those stunts that would never be bettered - mostly because it was such a stupid thing to do.

Sadly for David his record has now been officially broken by Michael Owen who has been hanging around in a box doing nothing for more than two months.

Rumours that the Newcastle striker is planning to have himself buried in ice over the summer break are completely unfounded.

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com