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The Atletico Madrid Origin Stories of the Great Strikers Part 5: Diego Forlan
- Updated: October 10, 2016
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.
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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 …
