Diego Forlan writes a weekly column for The National, appearing each Friday. The former Manchester United, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid striker has been the top scorer in Europe twice and won the Golden Boot at the 2010 World Cup. Forlan’s column is written with the assistance of European football correspondent Andy Mitten.
This is my first Christmas at home as an adult footballer in Uruguay. My return to play professional football in my homeland has gone well. Penarol, my team, won the opening half of our league, I’m playing every week and I’m enjoying time with my family.
I’m also keeping fit so I’m ready for pre-season training at the start of January. I’m 36; I’ve played 643 professional games, including 112 for my country. I’ve scored 276 goals. Add in friendly matches for clubs and games for youth and reserve teams and that’s a lot of football.
I’m delighted with how my career has worked out, but it’s only when I take a (rare) break like now that I look back. Or when somebody stops me to tell me. Normally, I’m looking forward, setting targets and trying to reach them.
One such occasion happened this week. I was in Ascuncion, Paraguay, where I was invited to the draw for the Copa Libertadores, which starts in February. There, I was presented with an award in honour of my family because over three generations, my grandfather, my father and I won four Copa America trophies.
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My mother’s father won it in 1959 and 1967 as a coach, my father in 1967 and me in 2011. There’s not a family in the world which has done this and I was given commemorative replica trophies of the Copa America.
The Libertadores draw has paired Penarol in the same group as Atletico Nacional from Colombia, Sporting Cristal, the Peruvian champions and the winner of the match between Argentine team Huracan and Caracas from Venezuela. I’m pleased with the group and we’ll play games at our new stadium, which is set to open in February and looks incredible.
For away games there will be a lot of travel, especially if we play in Venezuela, but I’m used to this. It becomes your normal life and I’m sure I’ll miss it when I stop playing. I hope that’s no time soon.
For the vast majority of my football career, Christmas has been in the middle of the football season, with games either side of a two-week break. That at least allowed me to go home for a week or ten days, but I never stopped training.
In England, there’s no winter break but an increase in matches. Some players find it tough and others complain and say there should be a break in England, but I loved all that football. Footballers want to play and all those games over Christmas were perfect for me. I was in my early 20s and would have played every day if I could.
In my first Christmas at Manchester United, the team played five games in 13 days and I started four of them. We won the league that season.
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Because I couldn’t be with my family, they came to see me in Manchester. At first it was a strange idea for them. They were used to spending Christmas in the sun and on the beach. Manchester doesn’t have either of those in summer, let alone winter! But they did come and they really enjoyed it, even though I couldn’t be with them all the time because I was away in hotels. That’s the life of a footballer, the decision I made.
When the season finished here a few weeks ago I had five days where I rested and did no training. Because I eat and drink well, it doesn’t matter if I have a little bit of unhealthy food.
My family are staying on the beach in Punta del Este and I’ve joined them, but I was soon training again.
I have a private trainer Santiago Alfaro, who I met at Villarreal. He’s been with me for 10 years and has experience of different methods in America and Germany. We’ve become friends so training doesn’t seem like a chore. I’ll get up for training at six in the morning and we run on the beach. It’s not a bad place to work.
People recognise me and shout my name. They’re nice, I like being home. Some ask me for photos. That’s fine if I’ve finished but they also ask while I’m running. If they want to catch up with me and take a photo while running then that’s fine, but I’m not going to stop in the middle of training!
Football stops becoming your priority in the holiday period, but I’ll still keep track of what’s going on in the world. If I put the TV on and there’s a game then I’ll watch it for bit, but there’s so much football on TV from other countries that you could lose your life to watching games. And I’m on holiday from football and should keep it that way.
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