The Atletico Madrid Origin Stories of the Great Strikers Part 5: Diego Forlan

It was a moment in time that, only now, do you look back on and appreciate the effort that must have been required to make it possible—on all sides.

We’re in Hamburg, Germany, and the 2010 Europa League final is four minutes away from going to a penalty shootout. Premier League underdogs Fulham had somehow got this far. But Roy Hodgson’s team looked out on their feet.

A squad made up largely of experienced professionals who had drifted through bigger clubs were just clinging on. Opponents Atletico Madrid were trying to force the issue as the more talented side, but Fulham’s exhaustion seemed to be contagious.

It is in situations such as this that match-winners emerge, and footballers make their reputations as game-changers or men who make the difference; the men who are remembered, basically.

Sergio Aguero is that sort of player, but here he was playing a supporting role.

Fulham’s Aaron Hughes was too tired to put a foot in on him on Atletico’s left flank, but Aguero needed movement in the box if something was going to happen, and that’s when Diego Forlan made it happen.

By simply running across and in front of Brede Hangeland in the penalty area, Forlan had opened up the sniff of a chance.

As quick as a flash, the Uruguayan was ahead of the big Norwegian defender and getting a touch to Aguero’s centre, which then also struck Hangeland on the way into the net. Atletico Madrid had just won only their second European trophy; a first for 48 years.

But while Fulham’s effort deserves acclaim—given that they are a second-tier team these days—they fell to a piece of thinking that no-one on their side could have matched.

This was Forlan’s 28th goal of the season—his seventh in Europe—and it was a perfect example of the penalty-area prowess that he had shown virtually ever since his arrival at Atletico from Villarreal in the summer of 2007, and indeed in his career in Spain before that.

At the time, he was one of the best around at what he did, and a shining example of just why you often need to be patient with footballers, especially players who are moving to new continents.

After first coming to Europe from South America with Manchester United in January 2002, the Uruguay international had been written off.

It took him 27 United appearances to score his first goal for the club—a late penalty that his team-mates virtually had to make him take in a Champions League clash with Maccabi Haifa nine months into his Old Trafford career. The score was 4-2 at the time, had he missed it wouldn’t really have mattered, yet it would have prolonged his anguish.

He didn’t miss, but it wasn’t exactly the start of great things for him at the club, and with a failure to adapt to the physical nature of English football ultimately proving his undoing, you could almost see the relief on his face when he left for Villarreal in 2004.

It soon showed on the pitch, too. Twenty-five goals in his first season in Spain earned him the Pichichi Trophy for the division’s top scorer, finishing ahead of the likes of Samuel Eto’o at Barcelona and Real Madrid’s great Brazilian, Ronaldo.

Forlan would carry on playing his part as Villarreal almost set the blueprint for Atletico Madrid, as a side consistently challenging near the top end of La Liga and impressing in the Champions League by reaching the semi-finals in 2006.

But they were never a club where ambition could be fulfilled, and when Atletico came calling in the summer of 2007 after losing Fernando Torres to Liverpool, the South American jumped at the chance to move. Although not a club of the calibre of United, there was a sense that he was back in the European spotlight.

He would manage to find the net 23 times in his first season at the club as, in partnership with Aguero, he helped Atleti fans move on from their beloved Torres.

Manager Javier Aguirre led the club to fourth in the league table, but a UEFA Cup defeat to Bolton Wanderers showed just how far Atleti had slipped on a European scale.

The following season again ended in a fourth-placed finish, but it was truly a breakthrough year for Forlan—whose stunning strike in a fine comeback against Espanyol late in the campaign achieved Champions League qualification.

With Aguero taking on more of a supporting role and often playing wider, Forlan would dominate the area, getting on the end of whatever service he was provided by his strike partner or the array of talented players around him such as Maxi Rodriguez, Simao Sabrosa and Luis Garcia.

His 32 league strikes made him Spain’s top scorer for a second time, with the list of players finishing below him reading like a who’s who of striking talent at the end of that decade, with Eto’o, David Villa, Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Thierry Henry, Raul and Forlan’s team-mate, Aguero, all featuring.

With Forlan shining, the back-to-back fourth-placed finishes had been all well and good, improving Atletico’s standing from both a financial viewpoint and a general awareness one. They were seen to be a club on the up.

But the fans craved trophies, and when they exited the Champions League at the group stage following a four-goal defeat to Chelsea and three-goal loss to FC Porto, the Europa League presented a perfect opportunity to earn silverware.

Galatasaray, Sporting CP and Valencia were beaten en route to the semi-finals, where Forlan’s goals in both legs—including a crucial extra-time strike at the Kop end of Anfield—were enough to edge Atletico past Liverpool on away goals.

Fulham were the surprising opposition following a remarkable run of their own that had included an unfathomable comeback victory over Juventus, but Forlan was to snatch glory away from them in a stone-cold fashion.

He scored in the first half in Hamburg, only for Wales international Simon Davies to almost instantly grab an equaliser, with the game then becoming a case of survival of the fittest.

Forlan proved to be the difference with his clever strike in the closing stages of extra time; his touch from Aguero’s cross found the bottom corner and sent Atletico fans in Hamburg wild.

Double glory couldn’t be achieved as Quique Sanchez Flores’ team lost out to Sevilla in the Copa Del Rey final, but Forlan was still riding the crest of a wave.

That summer he clinched the Golden Ball for the best player at the World Cup finals in South Africa, while also scoring five goals to tie with Thomas Muller, Villa and Wesley Sneijder for the Golden Boot award—Muller winning it by virtue of having more assists.

Forlan had scored twice in a group-stage win over the hosts, before netting in the quarter-final against Ghana, the semis against the Netherlands and then the third-place playoff against Germany. His all-round quality lit up a strike force that also included Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez.

But now aged 31, there was a sense that the tournament had taken something out of Forlan.

Back at Atletico he would score just 10 times in a disappointing 2010/11, with Aguero retaking the limelight ahead of his inevitable burst on to the global scene.

By the end of that season, Forlan needed a change, and he moved on to Inter Milan before subsequent stints in Brazil and Japan. Now 37, he’s playing in India for Mumbai City FC.

They still remember him at Atletico, though, where his goal-poaching ability and reading of the game secured a legacy remembered for one moment in time.