World Cup 2010: Golden Ball Winner - Diego Forlan
After the World Cup final in Johannesburg, the Golden Ball was awarded to Diego Forlan and who could argue that he did not deserve the honour of being named the best player at the tournament. Before the World Cup started, it was said that this was the moment for Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi to put their names amongst the greats of football, by winning the one trophy they had not but as the tournament played out, it was clear that there was only going to be one man who would take this award and it was not a Portuguese or an Argentinean.
Forlan's career appeared to be heading nowhere after a two year spell at English Giants Manchester United was considered a failure and he was offloaded to the Spanish club, Villarreal. In his first season at the club, Forlan scored an astonishing 25 goals, which landed him the Pichichi, awarded to the highest goal scorer in the Spanish La Liga. Forlan also shared the European Golden Boot award with Thierry Henry. After a rather disappointing second season, Forlan had another high scoring season with the same club before he moved to his current team, Atletico Madrid.
In 2009, Forlan received the European Golden boot for a second time after scoring 32 times in 33 games for the Spanish club. This feat also meant that Forlan became the second player to win the Pichichi twice since the great Brazilian, Ronaldo.
This year has been one of the best for Diego Forlan, perhaps, in his entire career. His club, Atletico Madrid reached the final of the UEFA Cup and then won it, thanks to the immense talent of the Uruguay forward. After scoring twice against Liverpool in the semi final, both home and away, to book a place in the final against another English side in Fulham, the forward went on to score twice in the final itself to seal a 2-1 victory for Atletico Madrid ending a phenomenal season for an extraordinary player.
With the World Cup being played in South Africa, the season was not yet over for Diego Forlan. Not many people expected Uruguay to perform as well as they did, reaching the semi-final of the World Cup, but few still expected Diego Forlan to be the best player at the tournament.
The tournament started off a little slowly, with a 0-0 draw against France. However, in the second game of the tournament, against hosts South Africa, Forlan was responsible for the 3-0 victory entirely. Scoring two and setting up the third, the South American almost single-handedly eliminated the World Cup hosts from the competition. At the quarter-final stage, it was Forlan's amazing free kick that allowed Uruguay to equalize and take the match into extra time. The Atletico Madrid hitman scored once again in the semi-final, and once again from long range against the Netherlands but his team eventually lost out, 3-2.
Forlan had one last game at the world cup to go though, and he made the most of it as he scored a sublime volley to put his team in the lead in the 3rd place play off against Germany. The game, unfortunately for him, ended 3-2 in favour of the Germans but the world of football was treated to another outstanding display of the talent of one Diego Forlan. One of the most technically gifted players has probably played his last game at the World Cup but his performances will be remembered for a long time to come, because players of his qualities come around very rarely, if at all.
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