After Balotelli and Januzaj, is Falcao about to take revenge on England?
Colombia striker will be driven to deliver against a country where he flopped, writes Matt Law
Receiving his man of the match award for scoring the goal that meant England would face Colombia, it was Belgium’s Adnan Januzaj who 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, 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 Premier League. Luis Suarez for Uruguay, Italy’s Mario Balotelli and Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal, back 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, where 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 quickly 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 either on his own or with a single physio.
The first-team players rarely saw him, but Gary Cahill knew how explosive 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 goalscorer. 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.”