Diego Forlán: A goalscoring sensation
By Thom Harris
In the summer of 2004, Villarreal took a £2.88million gamble on a golden-haired striker from Uruguay, in a bid to consolidate their newfound top-ten status in Spain. It would turn out to be one of the greatest decisions the club had ever made.
Even at the age of 25, Diego Forlán was still just an elusive talent. Recently let go by Manchester United, he had made his name at Independiente of Argentina, scoring 37 goals in 80 league games in Buenos Aires, before sealing a dream move to Manchester in 2001. And, while he became somewhat of a cult-hero under Sir Alex Ferguson — with fans still singing his name today after a famous brace at Anfield — all in all, with just 17 goals in 98 appearances for the Red Devils, he left United three years later with a bitterly disappointing first experience of European football. It all proved to be too much too soon for Forlán; an unproven, goalscoring prodigy who was thrust into the limelight a long, long way from home.
The man who gave Diego Forlán his second chance in Europe, though, was someone who had only just arrived from South America himself. Chilean manager Manuel Pellegrini, freshly plucked from River Plate, had plans to build on the Yellow Submarine’s tradition of nurturing Latin American talent; and Forlán’s arrival at El Madrigal proved to be the final, glittering addition to his eclectic collection of South American gems, all ready to shine brighter than ever before. In Pellegrini, Forlán and Juan Román Riquelme, the Yellow Submarine had united the city of Buenos Aires in the province of Castellón, as a Chilean, an Argentine and a Uruguayan — from River Plate, Boca Juniors and Independiente — would go on to leave an everlasting mark, not just on Villarreal, but on Spanish football as a whole.
Quickly developing a lethal, era-defining partnership with the immensely talented Riquelme, Forlán found his shooting boots almost immediately for the Yellow Submarine, on his way to a historic first season in Spanish football. Where it took the Uruguayan striker 21 games to score his first Manchester United goal, Forlán opened his Villarreal account just 78 minutes into the season opener at defending champions Valencia, with a nice finish at the back post. He soon became a reliable goalscorer for the Yellow Submarine, really hitting his stride over the Christmas period with ten goals in eight games, including a famous brace in a 3–0 win over eventual champions Barcelona that helped to fire Villarreal further up the table than they had ever been before. And, come the end of the season, Manuel Pellegrini’s side found themselves caught up in a dramatic race for Champions League qualification with Real Betis and Espanyol.
Forlán also found himself in an extraordinary individual battle, as Villarreal travelled to the Nou Camp for the penultimate game of the season with the Uruguayan five goals behind Samuel Eto’o in the Spanish goalscoring charts. The game that unfolded would perhaps be Forlán’s finest hour in the yellow of Villarreal, scoring a stunning hat-trick in a 3–3 draw — his first a sensational first-time, curling effort which nestled far into the top corner, and his third a wonderful chip from the edge of the box. In the final game of the season at home to Levante, Forlán scored another brace in a 4–1 win, not only sealing a historic third-place finish for Villarreal — the highest they had ever finished in the Spanish top-flight — but also a ‘pichichi’ trophy and a European Golden Boot for himself, ending his debut LaLiga campaign level with Eto’o with 25 goals. In just one season, Forlán had proved all of his Mancunian doubters wrong. Emphatically.
In the campaign that followed, while his LaLiga goal tally dropped, Forlán continued to show the kind of striker’s instinct that he had unleashed the season before, developing a reputation as a devastating finisher, and as one of the most two-footed forwards of his generation. Continuing to link up telepathically with the dazzling Riquelme, who was quickly becoming one of the world’s best playmakers, Forlán scored some magnificent goals as Villarreal mounted an unlikely European charge in their first ever Champions League campaign.
The Submarine’s third place finish meant that they first had to negotiate a tricky tie against Everton before qualifying for the group stages — and it was Forlán who sealed the 4–2 aggregate win with a last-minute breakaway goal, booking Villarreal’s place in a tough group alongside Manchester United, Benfica and Lille. Yet, against the odds, the Yellows finished top, unbeaten, and with ten points, setting up a quarter final tie with Rangers. And, once again, it was the South American show that sent Pellegrini’s men through, as Riquelme, Forlán and Rodolfo Arruabarrena, also signed from Buenos Aires club Boca Juniors, completed a famous 3–3 away goals victory to send Villarreal one step closer to unprecedented European glory.
By now, Forlán was gaining worldwide status as one of the best strikers in the world, with his golden locks and baggy, yellow Villarreal shirt fast becoming an iconic image of European football at the start of the 21st century. His club’s Champions League run was giving the Uruguayan striker a shot at redemption on some of the biggest stages of all, including the San Siro, as Pellegrini’s side lined up for the biggest game in their history against Inter Milan. And it took just 43 seconds for Forlán to make his mark, scoring the opening goal in a 2–1 defeat. The return leg, however, one of the finest nights in Villarreal history, was decided by the Boca Juniors boys, as Riquelme floated the ball into Arruabarrena, who flicked in the decisive goal in a 1–0 victory, sealing a 2–2 away goals victory, and firing the Yellows into dreamland: the last four of the UEFA Champions League.
Just one step away from the biggest game in club football, the semi-final matchup with Arsenal was a tense encounter, as Villarreal fell to an agonising 1–0 defeat at Highbury, before missing a penalty at El Madrigal, going out of the competition to a 1–0 aggregate defeat. To this day, though, Villarreal remain the best debut-performers in the history of Europe’s greatest competition, and Forlán remains an integral part of what is arguably the club’s greatest ever achievement.
The following season, in what would prove to be Forlán’s last with Villarreal, the Uruguayan reached new levels of brutality in front of goal, producing some emphatic finishes, including a goal of the season contender, left-footed rocket against Espanyol, on his way to a 19-goal LaLiga season. With the sad deterioration of relations between Riquelme and club, leading to his eventual departure, the Uruguayan shouldered the goalscoring responsibility admirably, scoring 15 more than anybody else at Villarreal in the league.
And unfortunately, that was to be the end of Forlán’s hugely successful stint with the Yellow Submarine, as he moved on to join Atlético Madrid in the summer of 2007. He would go on to hit new heights at Los Colchoneros, scoring a staggering 32 goals and registering 10 assists in just 33 LaLiga appearances in 2008/2009, cementing his place as one of the deadliest strikers to ever play in Spain’s top-flight.
In just three years at Villarreal, Diego Forlán created a timeless legacy at the club, helping, alongside his partner in crime, Riquelme, to put a small football team from a village of just 50,000 people onto the footballing map. He left the club as the third highest goal-scorer in its history, and one of its most iconic players of all time.
Without Forlán, Villarreal Club de Fútbol wouldn’t have ever reached the unimaginable heights of 2006. And without Villarreal Football Club, Forlán wouldn’t have ever become one of the best players his country has ever produced. It’s a great source of pride for Villarreal, that we were able witness the start on his truly incredible journey.
