Falcao next to make England sweat
Receiving his man of the match award for scoring the goal that meant England would face Colombia, Belgium’s Adnan Januzaj unwittingly highlighted the biggest threat to Gareth Southgate and his team in the last 16 of the World Cup.
“Obviously, in the past in England, I had a lot of criticism,” said the former Manchester United and Sunderland winger now at Real Sociedad. “Now, my job was to show those people that I’m here. I’m very happy with that.”
Januzaj had just become the latest in a string of players to haunt England at a major tournament after having been questioned, criticised or written off in the English Premier League.
Luis Suarez for Uruguay, Italy’s Mario Balotelli and Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal, in 2006, all rubbed the noses of their English critics in it before Januzaj. Now, Radamel Falcao is aiming to join the club.
Falcao’s journey to redemption in Russia runs past his ill-fated spell in the Premier League and back to the build-up to the 2014 World Cup when he tried unsuccessfully to rush back from a cruciate knee-ligament injury.
Heartbroken from missing out in Brazil, Falcao took a wrong turn. Rather than concentrating on his recovery at Monaco or moving to a club where he would be afforded time, the striker joined Manchester United on loan. Under Louis van Gaal, there was neither the stringent fitness regime, which he had benefited from at Atletico Madrid, nor the guarantee of games, which he had thrived on at Monaco, and Falcao could not get back up to speed.
Just 29 appearances and four goals later, Falcao was on the move again, with Jose Mourinho this time promising to rescue his career at Chelsea.
The Portuguese disclosed that Falcao had taken a pay cut in an attempt to get back on track, saying: “When you are not a top player, you never feel frustrated. When you are a top player, you have to live with this all through your career and you adapt to it. We felt his frustration.
“He is not happy that in England, people think he is not as good as he is and his motivation is there.
“He did a lot of things to come to us. He lost money to come to us, he didn’t want to listen to other offers. He helped us a lot to do a deal with Monaco so, all these things together, we think we can help him and he can help us.”
Despite those encouraging words, Stamford Bridge was an unforgiving place under Mourinho and, with Diego Costa ahead of him, Falcao never really stood a chance. Regular visitors to Chelsea’s Cobham training ground would often see the Colombian trotting around one of the pitches on his own or with a single physio.
The first team players rarely saw him but Gary Cahill knew how good
Falcao could be. The England defender was part of the Chelsea team that Falcao hit a hat-trick against for Atletico in the 2012 Super Cup.
“Falcao had a difficult time in England clearly, but outside of England, he’s a very high-profile player,” said Cahill. “He’s scored many, many goals. We were on the end of a hat-trick in the Super Cup, so he’s a goal scorer. He’s proved that.
“You don’t get loads of opportunities at Chelsea, you’re in for one or two games, then you’re out or not given a full 90, that was his frustration. He never really got up and running, a good spell of games back-to-back to find any sort of form. I’m sure, for him, it was difficult, but he showed his character to go on and find his goalscoring form again. He’s been banging goals in again ever since.”
Having netted only once — against Crystal Palace — Falcao left Chelsea in 2016 to return to Monaco, where he immediately looked at home again and could play through his rustiness in Ligue 1.
Just three months into his Monaco return, Falcao had earned a recall to the Colombia squad and he scored 27 times as the principality club stormed to the French title in 2017. He finished last season with 24 goals, despite seeing many of the club’s star players depart in the off-season.
But the goal that really completed Falcao’s recovery came last Sunday, as 32-year-old El Tigre netted for the first time in the World Cup during Colombia’s 3-0 victory over Poland.
“He’s tricky in the box, he likes to come off the shoulder a little bit and he’s a good finisher,” said Cahill. “If he gets half a chance, we saw in training that he’s a decent finisher. If he gets half a chance, he normally hits the target. Everyone knows him, everyone’s aware of him, his ability.”
Everyone was also aware of the ability of Januzaj, Suarez, Balotelli and Ronaldo. The problem for England has been stopping them.