Diego Forlan has retired from international football – though it is probably fair to say that he was given a gentle push. Forlan had not represented Uruguay since last year's World Cup. Earlier this year he talked about his desire to play one last Copa America.
Maybe he felt that, with Luis Suarez still serving his suspension, an experienced striker might come in handy in Chile this June. But earlier this week coach Oscar Washington Tabarez announced his squad for the warm up match against Morocco at the end of the month, and Forlan's name was not included. The hint was taken, and Forlan has called time on an international career that makes him the most capped Uruguayan in history.
Currently with Cerezo Osaka in Japan, Forlan has played for plenty of big clubs and done some impressive things – he was, for example, top scorer of the Spanish league with both Villareal and Atletico Madrid. But he will almost certainly be remembered for his deeds in the sky blue shirt – which, one imagines, is what he would wish for.
Diego Forlan was born into a Uruguay shirt. His grandfather, Juan Carlos Corazo, had a top class playing career in Argentina and won the Copa America as Uruguay coach in 1959 and 67. His father Pablo took part in the latter campaign and also played in two World Cups.
The success of Pablo Forlan as player and coach meant that young Diego grew up in comfortable middle class surroundings. Football was by no means his only option – he could, for example, have tried to make it as a tennis professional. But football is serious business in Uruguay. Elsewhere in the world the sons of high profile players normally lack that vital bit of hunger that transforms promise in reality. But Uruguayan football is full of such dynasties. And there was never any lack of hunger from Forlan when he pulled on the sky blue shirt.
He will be remembered as one of the stalwarts of the side which put Uruguay back on the map after Tabarez took over in 2006. His crowning achievement, of course, was to be chosen as the best player of the 2010 World Cup, when Uruguay reached the semi finals for the first time since 1970. Another undoubted high was the record 15th Copa America win in 2011, made all the sweeter by the fact that it happened in Argentina. Going home with the silverware was especially sweet for Forlan, given his family connection with the competition.
Diego Forlan, then, has played a key role in getting Uruguayan kids to wear the shirt of their national team with pride. But his international career did not start with the Tabarez era of 2006 – as Socceroos fans may be able to recall.
He did not feature in the first of those two epic play-off battles between Uruguay and Australia. At the end of 2001 he had yet to make his international debut, amid fears that his finishing was not sufficiently precise. Once Uruguay had qualified for the 2002 World Cup he was eased into the squad and went on to score a goal in the tournament.
By the end of 2005 it was a very different story. Uruguay scraped its way into the play-off after an uneven campaign – but one in which Forlan was its top goalscorer. His versatility – two footed, mobile, able to set up the play as well as score – meant that he was operating behind a physically strong dual centre forward strike force of Marcelo Zalayeta and Richard Morales. But come this second meeting with Australia there was a problem – Forlan was struggling for fitness. What would coach Jorge Fossati do about it?
In hindsight it is clear that Fossati took the wrong option. He chose to risk Forlan in the first leg in Montevideo – the player lasted just 18 minutes before he had to be substituted, and he could play no part in the return match in Sydney. Had its sharpest attacking weapon been fit, then in Montevideo Uruguay may well have been able to turn its second half domination into goals. But he was not fit. Given a few more days to recover, he might have been able to snatch a vital away goal in the second leg. That, though, was no longer an option, and, of course, it was Australia which came through on penalties.
In the long term that defeat has only proved positive for Uruguay. Had it made it through to Germany it may well have been happy to keep muddling on. Instead, failure to qualify opened the door for Tabarez and his bold project, where Uruguay's youth sides have been used to identify players capable of shining on the global stage.
It is the success of this work – where the players are groomed and given a crash course in the identity of the Uruguayan national team – which now renders Diego Forlan surplus to requirements. He has been overtaken as Uruguay's top scorer by Luis Suarez, who, along with Edinson Cavani, is a product of the 2007 Under-20 team.
Abel Hernandez has subsequently come through the ranks, along with more recent graduates such as Diego Rolan and playmaker Giorgian De Arrascaeta, and there are huge hopes of the star of this year's Under-20 side, the lanky left footed Gaston Pereiro.
I end with a question – with no pre-formed opinion and in a genuine spirit of enquiry. Going back to those Uruguay and Australia teams who met almost 10 years ago in that gripping play-off – Uruguay appears to have been able to replace Diego Forlan. How successful has Australia been in replacing the generation that Gus Hiddink trained?
