Diego Forlán

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Diego Forlán
Personal information
Full name	Diego Forlán Corazzo
Date of birth	May 19, 1979 (1979-05-19) (age 29)
Place of birth	Montevideo, Uruguay
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Forward
Club information
Current club	Atlético Madrid
Number	7
Youth clubs
	Danubio F.C. Independiente
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1998–2002 2002–2004 2004–2007 2007–	Independiente Manchester United Villarreal Atlético Madrid	091 0(40) 096 0(17) 106 0(56) 036 0(16)
National team2
2002–	Uruguay	046 0(16)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 21:52, 18 May 2008 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 12:11, 29 May 2008 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Diego Forlán Corazzo (born May 19, 1979 in Montevideo) is an Uruguayan footballer who currently plays for Atlético Madrid of La Liga. Also knows as "Cachabacha".

He was born into a family of footballers. His father Pablo Forlán had played for the Uruguay national football team during the 1974 FIFA World Cup held in West Germany and his grandfather Juan Carlos Corazzo played for Independiente (Argentina). He has dual citizenship: Uruguayan and Spanish.

[edit] Club career

[edit] Early career

He was a promising tennis player in his youth, but when his sister, Alejandra Forlán, was involved in a car accident which killed her boyfriend and left her in intensive care for five months, he decided however to follow the family tradition and concentrate on football. He played for several South American clubs including Argentine side Independiente before transferring in January 2002 to play for Manchester United in England for a fee of £6.9 million.

[edit] Manchester United

He made his début for the team on January 29 against Bolton Wanderers but did not score his first goal for the club, a penalty, until September 18 in a Champions League game against Maccabi Haifa. It took him eight months and 27 games to score that first goal, to the extent that he was dubbed "Diego Forlorn" and "Diego Birtles" (after Garry Birtles, a former United striker who had flopped) for his goal drought by some quarters of the English press.

Forlán enjoyed the occasional purple patch of scoring, but inconsistency blighted his time at United. He was, however, noted for scoring important goals, such as the late equaliser at home to Aston Villa and the remarkable volleyed winner in the last minutes of the home game against Chelsea during United's Premiership-winning season of 2002-3. During this period, Forlán became known for characteristically removing his shirt and baring his torso in celebration of his goals. The first such example of this routine resulted in quite an amusing incident; Forlán whipped his shirt off in excitement after scoring a last minute winner against Southampton in December 2002 but struggled to get it back on in time for the re-start of play, resulting in the spectacle of Forlán briefly running around the Old Trafford pitch bare-chested, with his shirt still in his hand. The referee soon stopped play and ordered Forlán off the pitch to get dressed.

He became a fan favourite in 2002 when he scored 2 goals against Liverpool in a 2-1 victory at Anfield. Forlán's record of 17 goals from 95 appearances for the club does not compare favourably against his former team mate Ruud van Nistelrooy's 150 goals in 210 games, and it was widely thought that he would not start the 2004-05 season in the Red Devils' team colours. Wayne Rooney's arrival at the English club eventually signalled the end of Forlán's playing days at United.

[edit] Villarreal

Forlán was strongly linked to a move to Spanish club Levante, but signed on 21 August 2004 with another Spanish club, Villarreal, where he became the Spanish 2004-05 season "pichichi" (top scorer) with 25 goals, helping Villareal to their first ever UEFA Champions League spot. He also jointly won the European Golden Boot award with Thierry Henry.

[edit] Atlético Madrid

Forlán was linked to transfer with Juan Román Riquelme to Atlético Madrid in exchange for Luis Perea and money in June 2007. On June 30, 2007, Atlético Madrid confirmed that they had agreed a fee of around € 21 million.^[1]. He returned to England in February 2008 to take part in Atletico's UEFA Cup clash against Bolton Wanderers (the club whom he made his Manchester United debut against), but the side lost out 1-0 on aggregate.

[edit] International career

Forlán debuted for the Uruguayan national team in 2002, and has since scored against Brazil in the 35th minute of a thrilling semi final of the 2007 Copa America. However, he missed his shot during the subsequent penalty shootout which Brazil ultimately won 5-4 ^[2]

[edit] Trivia

• Diego Forlán and Youri Djorkaeff were members of the Uruguay and France squads, respectively, that met in the 2002 Fifa World Cup. Their fathers Pablo and Jean featured in the match between Uruguay and France played in the 1966 FIFA World Cup.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Diego Forlán FIFA competition record
• FootballDatabase :: Diego Forlán
• Portrait at Soccernet
• Profile at Yahoo Sports

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