Diego Forlán Corazo 

(Spanish pronunciation: [ˈdjeɣo foɾˈlan]; born 19 May

1979 in Montevideo) is a Uruguayan footballer who currently plays for La
Liga club Atlético Madrid and the Uruguayan national team, as a striker.
He is a two-time winner of both the Pichichi Trophy and the European
Golden Shoe, and also received the Golden Ball as the best player at
the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Forlán was born into a family of footballers, his father Pablo having
played for Uruguay in the 1966 and 1974 FIFA World Cups and his
grandfather, Juan Carlos Corazo, for Independiente in Argentina.
[1]
 Forlán joined Independiente after rising through their youth team, and
after a successful four year spell signed forManchester United. Forlán's
two-year stint in the Premier League saw him fail to achieve the form he
held at Independiente, and he was signed by La Liga sideVillarreal.
In his first season in Spanish football, Forlán scored 25 league goals and
won the Pichichi Trophy. After two more successful seasons with
Villarreal, Forlán joinedAtlético Madrid, where he once again became the
league's top scorer, and became the first player to win the Pichichi
Trophy twice since Ronaldo achieved this feat in 2003-04.
Forlán also has a successful international career, in which he has scored
29 times for his country. He scored once at the 2002 FIFA World
Cup in Japan andSouth Korea, and five times at the 2010 FIFA World
Cup, in which he scored twice against the host nation South Africa, once
against Ghana in the quarter-finals, once against the Netherlands in
the semi-finals and once against Germany in the third place play-off. He
later received the Golden Ball award, given to the best player at the
tournament.
Early years
Forlán, son of former player and Uruguayan international Pablo Forlán,
was a promising tennis player in his youth, but he decided to follow the
family tradition and concentrate on football when his sister Alejandra was
involved in a car accident, which killed her boyfriend and left her in
intensive care for five months. He played for several South
American clubs, including Argentine side Independiente, where he made
his name in football as a goalscorer, before attracting European attention
and transferring in January 2002 to play for Manchester
United in England for a fee of £6.9 million.
Manchester United
Forlán endured a difficult time at Manchester United. Although he made
his debut for the club on 29 January against Bolton Wanderers, he did
not score his first goal until 18 September, a penalty in a Champions
League game against Maccabi Haifa. This goal drought, which lasted for
27 games during an eight month period, saw him dubbed "Diego Forlorn"
and "Diego Birtles" (after Garry Birtles, a former United striker who had
flopped) by some quarters of the English press.
Forlán enjoyed the occasional purple patch of scoring, though. He was
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 2002–03, and he became a fan favourite when he scored two
goals against Liverpool in a 2–1 victory at Anfield. During this period,
Forlán became known for removing his shirt and baring his torso
in celebration of his goals. The first such example of this resulted in quite
an amusing incident: Forlán whipped his shirt off in excitement after
scoring an 85th minute winner against Southampton in November 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, then recovering the ball for his
team. The referee soon stopped play and ordered Forlán off the pitch to
get dressed.
Forlán's record of 17 goals from 95 appearances for the club does not
compare favourably to his former teammate Ruud van Nistelrooy's 150
goals in 210 games, and it was widely thought that he would not start
the2004–05 season in the Red Devils' team colours. That eventually
proved true after signing for Villareal in August of 2004, the same month
Manchester United signed Wayne Rooney.
Villarreal
Forlán was strongly linked to a move to Spanish club Levante UD, but
signed on 21 August 2004 with another Spanish club, Villarreal CF,
where he became the Spanish 2004–05 season Pichichi Trophy winner
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. His form dipped in the 2005-06 season as Villareal
underwent several changes, but in 2006-07 he began to hit form again,
and ended the season high in the scoring charts.
Atlético Madrid

Forlán playing for 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 30 June
2007, following the departure of their captain Fernando Torres to
Liverpool, Atlético Madrid confirmed that they had agreed to a fee of
around €21 million.[2] He returned to England in February 2008 to take
part in Atlético's UEFA Cup clash against Bolton Wanderers (the club
against whom he made his Manchester United debut), but the side lost
out 1–0 on aggregate. For the 2008–09 season, he was once again the
recipient of the La Liga Pichichi Trophy award, with 32 goals in 33
matches, as well as the European Golden Boot for a second time.[3]
On 22 April 2010, Forlán scored the only goal of the game in
Atlético's Europa League semi-final first leg at home to Liverpool. A week
later, Liverpool took the tie to extra time before taking a 2–1 aggregate
lead. Forlán then scored again to make it 2–2 on aggregate, giving
Atlético the away goal they needed to reach the final, in which they
played against Fulham at Hamburg's HSH Nordbank Arena on 12 May.
[4]
 Forlán scored twice against Fulham in the Final, in a 2–1 win and was
confirmed the best player of the final match. [5]

International career

Forlán (right) with Luis Suárezat the 2010 World Cup.

Forlán debuted for Uruguay in 2002. On 11 June 2002, Forlán scored in

the 2002 FIFA World Cup against Senegal with a volley in a 3-3 draw.
Despite coming from three goals down to draw the game, Uruguay were
eliminated from the tournament along with France in Group A.[6] He also
scored against Brazil in the 35th minute of the 2007 Copa Américasemi-
final. However, he missed his shot during the subsequent penalty
shootout, which Brazil ultimately won 5–4.[7] Since the 2007 Copa
America, Forlán has become a regular for Uruguay and often has a place
in the starting XI. On 17 June 2008, he scored a hat-trick in a World Cup
qualifying game against Peru.[8]
Diego Forlán and Youri Djorkaeff were, respectively, members of
the Uruguay and France squads that met in the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
Their fathers, Pablo and Jean, featured in the match between Uruguay
and France at the 1966 FIFA World Cup.
2010 FIFA World Cup
On 16 June 2010, during Uruguay's second group game in the 2010
FIFA World Cup against South Africa, Forlán opened the scoring with a
long range effort. Later on in the game Forlán scored from the penalty
spot for his second and also had a hand in Uruguay's third, ending in a 3-
0 win over the host nation.[9] On 2 July 2010, Forlán scored a free kick
against Ghana to equalise during the quarter-finals. The game ended 1-1
and Uruguay advanced through to the semi-finals after defeating Ghana
4-2 in the penalty shootout.[10]. On 6 July 2010, Forlán scored another
long range goal, this time with his left foot to equalise against
the Netherlands in the semi-final. Despite a half-time score at 1-1,
Uruguay eventually lost 3-2 as the Dutch advanced to the final.[11] Forlán
became the first player since Lothar Matthäus in 1990 to score three
goals outside the penalty area in one tournament.[12] On 10 July 2010,
Forlán scored for the final time in the tournament as he netted a well
executed volley from the edge of the area to give Uruguay the lead. This
goal, after a pass by Arevalo Rios was selected by FIFA as the goal of
the Torunament[13].Forlán then hit the crossbar with the final kick of the
game from a free-kick as they lost toGermany 3-2 in the third place play-
off.[14] Forlán was awarded the Golden Ball as the tournament's best
player. Forlán is the fourth Latin American player that has received the
Golden Ball in the FIFA World Cup tournament.[15] He also was chosen in
the best team of the tournament, and he was one of the top goalscorer of
the World Cup with 5 goals.[16]