Diego Forlan might not be able to repeat his World Cup heroics of four years ago, but with Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani in form, he is looking to be the perfect partner...
Here we look at how the Uruguay forward retains ambitions to play his part in Brazil and how can he help his side reach the summit of the tournament...
It's not uncommon for Brazilian stars to move back to their homeland to boost their hopes of a World Cup call-up regardless of where the tournament is taking place. But just months before a Brazil World Cup, Uruguay's Diego Forlan made the unusual move away from his home continent.
The forward, 35 this May, swapped life in the Brazilian top flight with Internacional for football in a sixth different country of his career and a third continent. Cerezo Osaka of Japan is his new home. With Japan traditionally seen as a destination to signal the winding down of career, it raised concerns regarding the form he might be in ahead of Uruguay's campaign this summer.
Naturally, Forlan sees it rather differently. "I'm not worried about that at all," he told reporters upon his arrival in Japan in February. "The level of football here is very high from both a technical and physical standpoint so if anything, I think this will be good preparation for the World Cup."
Forlan's assessment is a reasonable one. At Cerezo, the veteran is playing alongside Japanese forward Yoichiro Kakitani - one of the stars of last year's East Asian Cup and an exciting talent tipped to be the country's next breakout stars. Kakitani's form has dipped since then but the youngster has been given the perfect partner in Forlan to rediscover his very best.
That's certainly how Sir Alex Ferguson saw Forlan's role when the former Manchester United manager had him at Old Trafford from 2001 to 2004. Unfortunately, Forlan joined the club at a time when Ferguson was experimenting with a 4-5-1 formation. He was also dealing with Ruud van Nistelrooy and "the problem of Ruud's singularity" as cited in Ferguson's autobiography.
"Ruud wanted to be the No. 1 finisher," wrote Ferguson. "That was his nature. Diego Forlan didn't register on his radar at all, so when you put the two of them out there together there was zero chemistry. Diego was better with a partner. But he scored some priceless goals. Two at Anfield, a goal with the last kick of the game against Chelsea.
"He was a good player and a terrific pro. He was great about the place, always smiling. Spoke five languages. A breath of fresh air, as a person. We let him go for £2 million, which I thought was too cheap. With his wages, no club was willing to bid any higher. The next thing we knew he was moving on for £15 million. He floated over the ground. He was small but had a good upper body. Tough."
The reason why that value increased so sharply was the period of sustained success that Forlan enjoyed under Manuel Pellegrini at Villarreal. Thriving on the service of Juan Roman Riquelme, he won the European Golden Shoe in 2005 for his La Liga tally of 25 before reaching the Champions League semi-final the following year and eventually moving on to Atletico Madrid.
It was in the Spanish capital that we saw further evidence of Forlan, the partner. His connection with Sergio Aguero was too much for most opponents as the duo fired almost 200 goals in four seasons together - with Forlan outscoring the Argentine striker 96 goals to 94 and winning a second Golden Shoe award in 2009.
The following year came arguably his finest individual achievement as Forlan won the Golden Boot as the top scorer at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Uruguay went all the way to the semi-finals before losing out by the odd goal in five to the Netherlands. For Forlan, it was a personal triumph, a shared achievement and the product of lots of hard work.
"I was in very good shape that year," Forlan told
FIFA in November. "I'd been training hard and also doing additional work with a personal trainer. Not long before the World Cup I played for Atletico de Madrid in the final of the Copa del Rey, which we lost against Sevilla. But we also reached the final of the UEFA Cup, when we beat Fulham, all of which helped me go into the finals on form."
Typically, partnerships were key once again. This time Luis Suarez was the accomplice as the pair forged a deadly attacking unit. At the 2011 Copa America, Suarez scored the opener in the final against Paraguay before Forlan himself added a brace in a 3-0 win. The success represented a remarkable triumph for a country with a population of a little over three million people.
It seems extraordinary that a country with a population closer to that of Wales than Scotland could produce two strikers of such quality. But there is a third. Edinson Cavani has since come to the fore with six goals in World Cup qualifying to add to Suarez's 11 and leave Forlan taking a back seat as the year's advance.
But the hero of South Africa still hopes to have a part to play four years on. "Sometimes the coach Oscar Tabarez plays the three of us," he said in a recent
Telegraph interview. "Me linking with two at the peak of their careers." Now that's a prospect to worry Italy and England next month.
