Revitalised Falcao dreaming of World Cup
MONACO: Colombian striker Radamel Falcao is aiming to realise his “dream” of playing in the World Cup next year, after continuing his red-hot start to the Ligue 1 season for Monaco on Saturday.
The 31-year-old scored a brace in the French champions’ 3-0 win over Strasbourg to make it nine goals in just six league games so far this term.
Falcao rediscovered his best form after returning to the Stade Louis II last season, scoring 30 goals as Monaco won the Ligue 1 title and reached the Champions League semi-finals.
That followed a bitterly disappointing two years on loan in England, where he was derided as a flop and scored just five times in 36 Premier League appearances for Manchester United and Chelsea.
But that bad spell came as he struggled to return to full fitness after missing out on the 2014 World Cup with a cruciate knee ligament injury.
Amazingly, Colombia’s record goalscorer has yet to feature at a World Cup finals at all, after they missed out on the 2010 play-off by one point.
“(The World Cup) is a dream for me,” said Falcao. “I am very motivated to help Colombia qualify for the World Cup and then I want to play it. I’m getting ready for that.
“I feel better, I feel better than last year. It’s important to me, and the more months that go by, the better I’ll feel.
“Yes of course I thought I would come back (from the injury). I am always positive with a mentality to work a lot.”
But for now, Falcao, who scored 70 goals in two seasons for Atletico between 2011-2013, is focused on scoring as many goals as possible in a league where Paris Saint-Germain’s trio of Neymar, Edinson Cavani and Kylian Mbappe will be vying with him for the Golden Boot.
z Bayern Munich forward Arjen Robben scored a rare right-footed goal in a 4-0 Bundesliga rout of Mainz 05 while a bizarre own goal set Werder Bremen on the way to 2-1 home defeat by Schalke 04 on Saturday.
Chadrac Akolo, who arrived in Switzerland as a refugee from his native Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009, gave VfB Stuttgart a 1-0 win over VfL Wolfsburg in a game also marked by a video referee controversy. Agencies