Diego Forlán

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Forlán started his career in his native Uruguay as a youth player for the Peñarol and Danubio academies, before joining Argentine club Independiente in the 1997–98 season. After rising through their youth team and a successful four-year spell, he sealed a move to England with Manchester United in the 2001–02 season. Although he struggled to replicate the form he had shown at Independiente, he won the Premier League and the FA Cup with the club. Before the start of the 2004–05 season, Forlán moved to Spanish side Villarreal. In his first season with the club, he won the Pichichi Trophy and European Golden Shoe with 25 goals. After two more successful seasons with Villarreal, during which he won the UEFA Intertoto Cup and reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League, Forlán joined Atlético Madrid in 2007 where, in the 2008–09 season, he once again became the league's top scorer, winning both the Pichichi Trophy and European Golden Shoe for the second time with 32 goals, becoming the first player to win the Pichichi Trophy twice since Ronaldo in the 1996–97 and 2003–04 seasons. Forlán also won the UEFA Europa League, of which he scored the decisive goal in the final, and the UEFA Super Cup with Atlético Madrid, both in 2010. In the 2011–12 season, he joined Italian club Inter Milan, before moving to Internacional in Brazil the following year. After several spells in Japan with Cerezo Osaka, back in Uruguay with his boyhood club Peñarol, in India with Mumbai City and in Hong Kong with Kitchee, Forlán officially announced his retirement from professional football in August 2019.

In Their Own Story

The 2010 UEFA Europa League final against Fulham at the Hamburg Arena was the stage for Forlán's defining moment with Atlético Madrid. With the match deadlocked, he received a delicate chip, controlled it on his chest, and unleashed a thunderous volley that screamed past the goalkeeper. The net exploded. The stadium erupted. Forlán sprinted toward the stands, arms wide open, diving into the embrace of the sea of red and white that had waited decades for this moment.

Reader's Guide

Forlán also had a successful international career, scoring 36 times in 112 appearances for the Uruguay national team. Forlán participated in three FIFA World Cups (2002, 2010, 2014) and three Copa Américas (2004, 2007, 2011). His most notable achievement came at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, in which he led Uruguay to the final four for the first time since the 1970 FIFA World Cup, scoring five goals and one assist in the process, and was ultimately awarded the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player, selected for team of the tournament, and was the joint-top scorer. In the following year, Forlán earned his 79th international cap in a match against México, breaking the record held since 1986 by goalkeeper Rodolfo Rodríguez, at the 2011 Copa América, in which Uruguay won its first continental title since 1995, scoring two goals in the final and one assist. On 20 June 2013, in a match against Nigeria at the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, Forlán became the first Uruguayan to win 100 caps. He was Uruguay's all-time leading top scorer from 2011 until Luis Suárez overtook him two years later in 2013. After retiring as a player, Forlán began his coaching career in Uruguay, managing Peñarol and Atenas in 2020 and 2021. He has also collaborated with FIFA in several ventures, having served as a tournament ambassador for the 2018 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, and since 2022, has served as an international ambassador for the FIFA Museum. Since July 2023, Forlán has continued his tennis career, competing in the ITF Masters tour, ranking in the 35+, 40+, and 45+ age categories, and played his first ATP event at the 2024 Uruguay Open in doubles with Federico Coria.

Did You Know?

• Forlán is of Basque, Italian, and Irish descent, and because of his Basque ancestry through his grandmother, who was originally from Gipuzkoa and immigrated to Uruguay when she was a teenager, he was linked to Athletic B
• Born to a family of professional footballers, Forlán is the son of Pablo Forlán (who played during several prolific years for Peñarol and São Paulo and represented the Uruguay national team at the 1966 and 1974 FIFA Worl
• Forlán was born on 19 May 1979 and raised in the neighborhood of Carrasco in the capital city of Montevideo. His family, which included three brothers, a sister, four cousins, his maternal grandmother and her sister, res
• On 14 September 1991, Forlán's sister Alejandra was seriously injured and eventually left handicapped by a car accident that also killed her boyfriend. The cost of the medical bills plunged his family into financial cris