Diego Forlan retires

tentan

Poor man's poster.
Joined
Oct 5, 2013
Messages
4,554
Former Manchester United and Atletico Madrid forward Diego Forlan has announced his retirement.

The 40-year-old, who was capped 112 times by Uruguay, and also played for Villarreal and Inter Milan, last played for Kitchee in Hong Kong in 2018.

He won the Premier League in 2003 with United and the Europa League while at Spanish side Atletico in 2009.

"It hasn't been easy, I didn't want the time to come, but I knew it was going to come," Forlan said.

Forlan's former Uruguay team-mate Luis Suarez posted a tribute to him on social media.

"Historic for Uruguayan football. Grateful for all the unforgettable moments you made all Uruguayans live, both in the national team and in all the teams you played," said the Barcelona forward.

"I will always be grateful for what you taught me, both on and off the field. A dream to have played with one of my idols. You will always be a legend in Uruguay."
 

tentan

Poor man's poster.
Joined
Oct 5, 2013
Messages
4,554


Probably one of the most memorable Premier League moments ever. What are your memories of him?
 

SteveJ

all-round nice guy, aka Uncle Joe Kardashian
Scout
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
62,851
Good old Diego.
 

Indnyc

Full Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2017
Messages
4,537

0le

Full Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2017
Messages
5,806
Location
UK
Very likeable guy, a shame it didn't work out here.
 

2cents

Historiographer, and obtainer of rare antiquities
Scout
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
16,277
The volley against Rangers really showed what he was capable of. I think he might have fitted in quite nicely at United a couple of years later, during the peak Ronaldo-Rooney era, but some things just aren't meant to be.
 

#07

makes new threads with tweets in the OP
Joined
Oct 25, 2010
Messages
23,305
He made the Scousers cry...
 

MyOnlySolskjaer

Creator of Player Performance threads
Joined
Nov 27, 2014
Messages
26,927
Location
Player Performance Threads
Thought he'd be older than 40 tbh! Find it weird that he's just 4 years older than RVP and 2 years older than Evra. Always felt like he was an earlier era player.
 

SteveJ

all-round nice guy, aka Uncle Joe Kardashian
Scout
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
62,851
An ode to Jabulani-taming, Liverpool-beating Diego Forlan
F365 said:
Throughout he seems to have had a personality that endeared him to his fans. Even at Old Trafford, despite his struggles, he was still a fan favourite and attracted more sympathy than ire. We even sold a lot of ‘I Saw Forlan Score’ t-shirts, which went to prove that there was more fun than fury around the situation. His two goals at Anfield certainly cemented his unusual legend.
Click to expand...
 

starman

Full Member
Joined
May 14, 2007
Messages
7,092
Location
Under a tree.
Shame it didn't really work out for him here. He had great variation in his goals and was quality between 2005-2010

 

Spiersey

Full Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2012
Messages
7,386
Location
United Kingdom.
Supports
Chelsea
He’s probably the best striker in the last 15 years to have such a bad spell at one club, which is such a contract to the rest of his career. Genuinely world class player. Very underrated in my opinion.
 

Pughnichi

Full Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2016
Messages
1,595
Had a woeful start as we all know. There was a brief period with RVN injured iirc and he came in and scored 9 in 10 or something quite ridiculous. Shame we didn’t persevere with him as he soon went on to tear the Spanish league to pieces. A likeable guy. Scorer of great goals. Scorer of different types of goals
 

Pexbo

Winner of the 'I'm not reading that' medal.
Joined
Jun 2, 2009
Messages
68,684
Location
Brizzle
Supports
Big Days
I always felt he was here two seasons too early.

He was second fiddle to Van Nistelrooy and had to play in a team and system built around Van Nistelrooy who was a very different player to him. Van Nistelrooy was all about the shoulder of the last man and dominating the box with great positional play, instinct and ruthless finishing off any scraps.

Forlan on the other hand enjoyed finding space a bit deeper and liked having players attacking the box ahead of him and overloading around him and when Van Nistelrooy left and we moved to that more dynamic attack with Rooney and Ronaldo attacking the box from wide positions fed by Carrick and the likes of Park in support I think he’d have absolutely excelled with us.

It was around that time that Louis Saha’s inclusion ahead of Van Nistelrooy suddenly gave the side a much sharper dynamism and as good as Saha was when fit Forlan was the bigger talent.
 

Foxtrot

New Member
Newbie
Joined
May 19, 2018
Messages
699
Supports
Die Mannschaft
He’s a flop wasn’t he? Besides scoring important goals against Liverpool.
 

kiristao

Full Member
Joined
May 4, 2005
Messages
4,653
Location
Goa, India
tentan said:


Probably one of the most memorable Premier League moments ever. What are your memories of him?
Click to expand...
This is the first thing I thought of when I read Forlan. He had a really poor start at United. Had a decent career with us including some memorable goals against Chelsea and Liverpool.
Had a much better after in Spain and beyond. Had an amazing world cup (2010 was it?) As well.
 

VeevaVee

The worst "V"
Scout
Joined
Jan 3, 2009
Messages
46,261
Location
Manchester
tentan said:


Probably one of the most memorable Premier League moments ever. What are your memories of him?
Click to expand...
I was there the first time he played for us, and right in front of him when he tried to shoot and airshotted it big time. A sign of things to come.

Massive shame because he was some player. Also remember everyone wanting a pen to be given to him so he’d finally get a goal, but it wasn’t (was it Keane that refused?).
 

CherryBoy

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Feb 19, 2019
Messages
92
Never understood why players like this are 'fan favourites' even though they flopped, but Lukaku get's hate for actually doing what he was supposed to be doing, scoring goals!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.