Oscar Tabarez’s tenure as Uruguay coach produced outstanding results, including fourth place at the 2010 FIFA World Cup and a CONMEBOL Copa America title in 2011, but none more important than the values that he instilled. He turned his teams into one big family and created a sense of belonging throughout the Celeste set-up.
Over time, the players who were part of that era have gone on to pursue careers in a range of fields, and Diego Forlan is now one of its most prominent heirs, with the opportunity to fulfil a dream.
Named the best player at South Africa 2010 and a standout performer at Copa America 2011, Forlan has taken charge of the U-20 national team, whose main objective is to qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup Azerbaijan & Uzbekistan 2027, and the senior national team until at least March next year, when elections will be held at the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF).
Forlan, now 47, was one of the key players of an era that combined the quality of his generation, featuring the likes of Luis Suarez, Edinson Cavani, Diego Godin and Diego Lugano, with a fierce desire to represent La Celeste.
The peak of his playing career came in South Africa, where he was named player of the tournament after racking up five goals. It was therefore fitting that, at his unveiling as coach, the 47-year-old described his emotions in returning to the national team’s training complex in Montevideo.
“Having had the opportunity to represent your country, it gives you goosebumps,” he said. “The moment I returned to the complex, where I’d arrived in 1999 to join the national team for the first time, was incredibly emotional.” It was a return to the source of a lifelong bond with his country.
One of the attributes that the honchos at the AUF will be hoping to tap into is Forlan’s football IQ, which enabled him to fully capitalise on his talent. Beyond the statistics, which make him Uruguay’s third-highest scorer of all time, Forlan was a player of exceptional quality. His game was built on outstanding technical ability and finishing, but also on an understanding of the game that made him an elite forward.
Walter Gargano notably described his erstwhile international team-mate as “really smart” in an interview with FIFA earlier this year. “He was always one step ahead of the play,” said Gargano. “He saw things that others didn’t. He would get into such good positions. When you think of a player with vision, you think of Diego.” Helping players, particularly the younger ones, improve their reading of the game will be one of the former attacker’s priorities.
After Diego Alonso’s Uruguay were eliminated in the group stage at Qatar 2022 and Marcelo Bielsa’s side suffered the same fate at this year’s World Cup, Forlan is the first member of the Tabarez generation to have the opportunity to take charge of the senior national team.
“Everyone who worked with him is still in contact with me and they’re happy,” said the former Manchester United striker, whose first fixture at the helm is against Japan on 24 September, during an international tour that also includes a meeting with Korea Republic on 28 September. “As for El Maestro, I’m sure we’ll get together.”
Throughout his tenure as the tactician for Los Charruas, Tabarez built his approach around the underlying principles of explaining, coaching and evaluating. At the Complejo Celeste in Montevideo, the Uruguay players followed a clear code of conduct. It was understood by 15-year-olds who could not be sure that football would be part of their future, applied by Godin, the great leader, and respected by Suarez, the biggest star.
You always had to say “good morning” or “good afternoon” when speaking to the media. It was compulsory to thank the waiters and show the utmost respect for their work. You were not allowed to use your mobile phone during mealtimes and you had to take your plates to the kitchen to help the staff. This was all part of a plan called the Institucionalización de los Procesos de Selecciones Nacionales y de la Formación (“Institutionalisation of National-Team Processes and Development”).
“The journey is the reward” is one of Tabarez’s favourite phrases. There is another, however, that seems to have resonated with him even more. It comes from Tato Lopez, a former Uruguayan basketball player, journalist and writer: “No one is better than all of us together.”
Forlan is fiercely competitive and has continued to prove as much since retiring from the beautiful game. At 45, around five years after hanging up his boots, he took up tennis and went on to play professionally at the 2024 Uruguay Open, where he partnered Argentine Federico Coria in the men’s doubles. He has also participated in five ITF Masters Tour tournaments in the over-45 category and reached the final of an event in Paraguay.
“I like winning, whatever sport I’m playing, even if it’s a friendly,” he said.
The man nicknamed Cachavacha, after a witch in the Argentinian cartoon series The Adventures of Hijitus, is now taking up what some might consider a poisoned chalice in the wake of a period of disappointing results and unexpected setbacks. Driven by his desire to win and his love for Uruguay, the one-time sorcerer on the pitch dreams of finding the magic formula to return La Celeste to the heights reached during the celebrated Tabarez era.
Credit: FIFA
