Ex-Man Utd striker Forlan to make professional tennis debut aged 45

Zardoz7/12

Zardoz7/12

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Former Uruguay soccer international Diego Forlan, who played for Manchester United and Atletico Madrid among others, will compete in doubles at the professional Uruguay Open tennis tournament in November, organisers said on Tuesday.
The 45-year-old former striker, a 2010 World Cup semi-finalist, has switched to tennis since his retirement in 2018, playing on the international senior tour.

Forlan, who plays left-handed, will team up with current world number 101 Federico Coria of Argentina in the main draw at the November 11th-17th clay court Challenger Tour event in Montevideo after being given a wild card.

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"Yes, our number 10 is smashing it in tennis too," organisers said of Forlan's participation.

"This year, Forlan has competed in more than three +40 tournaments in Montevideo, also standing out in the MT1000 in Lima of the ITF World Tennis Masters Tour."

Forlan, a Premier League winner with United, won 112 caps for Uruguay scoring 36 goals and also played for Villarreal and Inter Milan.
 
Mustard said:
Diego Forlan is really liked by Manchester United fans, despite his one-time goalscoring troubles, because he was persistent in never giving up.
Click to expand...
And the 2 goals against Liverpool in three minutes made him a cult hero.

''As a result of his Anfield heroics, United fans immortalised Forlan with a song, "Diego Forlan, he came from Uruguay, he made the Scousers cry." I still remember it, my mate was like, ''I told you he was good.'' I wasn't going to argue after that. :p
 
Good luck to him.

He was a joy to watch as a football player, and for a period it seemed like he was continually scoring from outside the penalty box.

His World Cup goals for Urugay, vs. Senegal in 2002 and through the 2010 tournament were certainly special.


And winning the La Liga golden boot / Pichichi when playing for both Villarreal and Atleti was some going.
 
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Some 25 years ago I saw Zvonimir Boban play against Goran Ivanisevic and he had some really nice tennis skills. Boban, I mean .
They played under funny rules, 30-0 in every game for Boban and Goran could use only his 2nd serve.
 
Gizo said:
Good luck to him.

He was a joy to watch as a football player, and for a period it seemed like he was continually scoring from outside the penalty box.

His World Cup goals for Urugay, vs. Senegal in 2002 and through the 2010 tournament were certainly special.


And winning the La Liga golden boot / Pichichi when playing for both Villarreal and Atleti was some going.
Click to expand...

He was the best player of 2010 world cup winning golden ball, he's a legend .
 
Federer and Del Potro said:
I remember when they asked if his like 6 mil transfer fee was too much. Now you have guys like Antony getting signed for hundreds of millions. Awk well.

@Fabresque
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Forlan wasn’t even good in England but he was still miles better than the shower of s*** Antony has served up. Big yikes. Ten Wigs obsession with anything Dutch is his biggest red flag.
 
Lleytonstation said:
Absolutely not. That looks like stuff I see on the weekend from grade schoolers. That is low quality.
Click to expand...
Ok, ok, I was confused because it is decidedly not challenger quality. You said “always thought challengers were better” and I thought it was a joke.

To clarify, you’re right, challengers are absolutely better. Not even close. This guy couldn’t even sniff junior tournaments. I mean no disrespect to him what he’s done is impressive with multi sport and everything and he’s better than the vast majority of this board but you’re not impressed by him because he’s not even in the same zip code as challenger level. He’s playing with a high level challenger player, Federico Coria @ rank 101 so the highest echelons of challenger and lower tour level, and Federico is playing with him because Forlan is a celebrity and it’s a fun gimmick to see a former professional athlete play competent tennis at 45. They got a wild card for the hell of it or whatever and people made it out to be a headline. Forlan is like an 8 UTR or a 4.5 NTRP. Again, respect to him because what he’s done is still impressive and he’s actually better than most grade schoolers I imagine you see. I know some 6th graders that could beat him but my point is you still need to work A LOT to get where he is because the skill ceiling in this sport is so high. Got off track there. But I digress, Challenger players are 13.5-15 UTR which is 7.0 NTRP. Info in this post is all right off the top of my head, at least.
 
NeutralFan said:
He was the best player of 2010 world cup winning golden ball, he's a legend .
Click to expand...

His goals against South Africa, Ghana and the Netherlands in that tournament were all incredible. And he scored 2 well taken goals in the 2011 Copa América final as well. He certainly delivered in the biggest matches that he played in for Uruguay.

After the British commentators opened up by saying ‘we’re all Ghana fans now’ at the start of the Uruguay-Ghana QF, I instantly began to root for Uruguay.
 
InsuranceMan said:
Ok, ok, I was confused because it is decidedly not challenger quality. You said “always thought challengers were better” and I thought it was a joke.

To clarify, you’re right, challengers are absolutely better. Not even close. This guy couldn’t even sniff junior tournaments. I mean no disrespect to him what he’s done is impressive with multi sport and everything and he’s better than the vast majority of this board but you’re not impressed by him because he’s not even in the same zip code as challenger level. He’s playing with a high level challenger player, Federico Coria @ rank 101 so the highest echelons of challenger and lower tour level, and Federico is playing with him because Forlan is a celebrity and it’s a fun gimmick to see a former professional athlete play competent tennis at 45. They got a wild card for the hell of it or whatever and people made it out to be a headline. Forlan is like an 8 UTR or a 4.5 NTRP. Again, respect to him because what he’s done is still impressive and he’s actually better than most grade schoolers I imagine you see. I know some 6th graders that could beat him but my point is you still need to work A LOT to get where he is because the skill ceiling in this sport is so high. Got off track there. But I digress, Challenger players are 13.5-15 UTR which is 7.0 NTRP. Info in this post is all right off the top of my head, at least.
Click to expand...
Challenger players are offten ex, future or even current top 100 players Biggest difference between them and world elite is consistency
 
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