The Uruguayan Diego Forlán, former player of Independiente, Manchester United, Villarreal, Atlético de Madrid, Inter Milan and Peñarol, among others, in addition to wearing his country's absolute elastic 113 times, with which he won the Ballon d'Or in the 2010 World Cup, has become the new international ambassador for the FIFA World Football Museum, which for the former player makes him feel “very honored and proud”, in addition to being “very excited and excited” in this new mission.
Forlan
-
Cherry Osaka
- Forward
- Uruguay
“I am very honored and proud to be able to represent the home of world soccer history. I am very excited and excited about this new mission. We have already started to develop wonderful ideas. New, important and exciting projects are emerging, and I can't wait to start working on them. Taking responsibility for representing the heritage and culture of football is something very relevant, something with which I feel completely identified. And being able to use my voice to bring the FIFA Museum to a wider audience makes me very excited and excited. It's a new and fascinating role for me “, says Forlán, that this Monday he was presented in office, as reported by the highest football organization.
Forlán, born in Montevideo on May 19, 1979, the son of a former soccer player and grandson of a former coach, hung up his boots in 2018 at Kitchee SC, Hong Kong, to start a career as a coach. In his record, there are, among others, a series of titles such as the Copa América, the Premier, the European League, the Super Cup or the extinct Intertoto Cup.
In the 2011 Copa América, held in Argentina and in which Uruguay was proclaimed champion, Forlán played his seventy-ninth international match, thus breaking the record held since 1986 by goalkeeper Rodolfo Rodríguez. At the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, he became the first player to reach 100 appearances for the Uruguayan team, while at the 2010 World Cup, the striker was the top scorer ex aequo with five goals (including the one who was chosen as the best in the tournament) and he won the Ballon d'Or for the best player.
His mission, now, will be to contribute to “safeguarding and celebrating the rich heritage and culture of football on a global level”, it is specified in the FIFA statement.
“Part of my mission will be to exclusively interview other FIFA Legends to discuss their fondest football memories. Based on this idea, we are also working on the development of totally new exhibition formats for football fans all over the planet, “he says.
Among the treasures of the FIFA Museum in Zurich is the iconic headband that Forlán used to wear in his games at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
“We are delighted to welcome Diego Forlán to the FIFA Museum team as an international ambassador. Diego wrote pages of soccer history. He is one of those indelible faces in the history of the World Cup. He was not just a great footballer who broke records, won awards, and played across different football cultures in nine different countries; We have also discovered that he is a very intelligent, caring and sincere person whose desire is to use the global and cultural phenomenon of football as a tool for responsibility and social change. It is a great signing and another important milestone for our organization. We could not have found anyone better than him for this position, “said Marco Fazzone, executive director of the museum.