On This Day: 'El Nino' Fernando Torres born; 'Black Spider' Yashin passed away

Hi all, welcome to All Football's On This Day! Let's find out what happened today (March 20th) in football history. If you have more stories and news that happened on this day in history, feel free to post them in the comment area and share them with AFers!

On this day in 1984, 'El Nino' Fernando Torres was born

Torres joined Liverpool in 2007, after signing for a club record transfer fee. He marked his first season at Anfield by being Liverpool's first player since Robbie Fowler in the 1995–96 season to score more than 20 league goals in a season. The most prolific goalscoring spell of his career, he became the fastest player in Liverpool history to score 50 league goals. Torres left the club in January 2011 to join Chelsea for a British record transfer fee of £50 million, which made him the most expensive Spanish player in history. In his first full season at Chelsea, Torres won the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League. The following season, he scored in the final of the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League, helping Chelsea to win the competition for the first time.

Torres has been described as having "an eye for the spectacular" and being "capable of world-class skill", as well as being regarded as a "technically proficient, highly successful striker". He has the ability to find himself in goalscoring positions, using his pace and vision to get in behind defenders. A hard-working striker, he is also known for his willingness to chase down and put pressure on opposing defenders, and is capable of playing off his teammates and creating chances for other strikers, in addition to scoring goals himself; this has also seen him be deployed in a deeper role as a second striker on occasion.

On this day in 1990, 'Black Spider' Lev Yashin died

Born in Moscow, Yashin spent his entire professional career with Dynamo, making 326 league appearances from 1949 to 1971. In the process, he won five league titles and three Soviet Cups. Once, when asked about his incredible record for stopping penalty kicks, he said the secret was "to have a smoke to calm your nerves, then toss back a strong drink to tone your muscles."

Despite his success with Dynamo, he rose to international fame as keeper for the Soviet national team. He earned his first cap in 1954 and was instrumental in their gold medal winning 1956 Summer Olympics campaign, allowing only two goals in the tournament. He was equally frugal in the 1960 European Championship, again allowing only two goals in the tournament as the Soviet Union won the inaugural tournament.

In 1963, the year he captured his fifth league title with Dynamo, he won the Ballon d'Or, becoming the first--and to date only--goalkeeper to win the award.

He suffered a knee injury in 1986 that led to the amputation of one of his legs. That created complications that led to his death in 1990. Four years later, FIFA created the Lev Yashin Award, given to the best goalkeeper at the World Cup.

On this day in 2004, Chelsea's 86 matches home unbeaten streak start

On 20 March 2004, Chelsea beat Fulham 2-1 in an English Premier League match at Stamford Bridge, starting a home unbeaten streak that would last a total of 86 matches - an English record. 

The last match in that run was a 2-0 league win over Aston Villa on 5 October 2008. Liverpool finally ended Chelsea's home dominance with a 0-1 league win on 26 October 2008, when Liverpool's Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso scored in the 10th minute off a deflection from Chelsea defender Jose Bosingwa. Just two months later, Chelsea suffered another home defeat in the league, this time a 1-2 loss to London rivals Arsenal.

On this day in 1987, Ex-Man City striker Jo was born

Jo is a Brazilian player who plays as a striker for Japanese club Nagoya Grampus. He has previously played for Corinthians, CSKA Moscow, Manchester City, Everton, Galatasaray, Internacional and Atlético Mineiro. Jô made his full international debut for Brazil in 2007 and also played at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

On 31 July 2008, Manchester City signed Jô for an undisclosed value thought to be worth about £19 million, a club record at the time. He scored just one league goal in 4 matches for Manchester City and also scored a brace in the UEFA Cup against Omonia Nicosia.