Chelsea ace Fernando Torres admits he took up football after being inspired by Japanese cartoon character Captain Tsubasa.

Torres has been mobbed by local fans as Chelsea go for the Club World Cup this week in Japan.

He said: "I remember when I was a kid, we couldn't find the signal really well on TV, but everyone in school was talking about this cartoon about football, from Japan.

"It was a series called Oliver y Benji in Spain, and in Japan it was Captain Tsubasa, and these two young players started as youth team players, got into the national team, won the World Cup, and moved to Barcelona and Bayern Munich, then moved to Europe, so it was like a dream.

"I started playing football because of this, and because my brother forced me, and I loved the cartoon. I wanted to be Oliver, because he played out on the field and Benji was the goalkeeper. That was the first contact I had with Japan."