Diego Forlan, a man of key goals at crucial moments (News Feature)

By Sebastian Fest May 13, 2010, 15:52 GMT

Hamburg - Not all goals are worth the same, and Diego Forlan knows that better than most: he is an expert in the art of scoring when it really matters.

'I thought they were going to give me a car! But no, nothing...' he laughed with four friends in the cold Hamburg morning Thursday.

Perhaps he was only half-joking. He may have found reasons to feel that, as man-of-the-match, his brace in Atletico Madrid's 2-1 win over Fulham in the Europa League final Wednesday should carry a bonus.

Or that Atletico Madrid should give a special present to the man who changed their world in just three games in the Europa League: he scored a goal in the 1-0 home win against Liverpool in the first leg of the semifinals, another in the 2-1 defeat at Anfield Road that gave them a place in the final, and two more to seal a European title that would have seemed impossible only a few months back.

'These are the most important goals of my career. I was very happy with the two Golden Boot awards, but this year is better, because these goals brought with them a title,' the Uruguayan striker said.

'He had the chance to win three titles with Manchester United, the Premiership, the FA Cup and the Community Shield, but to do it for a team and for fans who suffer as much as those of Atletico must have been wonderful for him, that's why he celebrated so wildly,' the player's father Pablo Forlan - who himself played three World Cups - told the German Press Agency dpa.

But Forlan's relationship with the club's fans has not always been easy.

The striker angrily shouted an obscenity at Atletico fans on March 26, after scoring against Athletic Bilbao after they had booed their former idol all match long.

They were nervous, because the team had been dangerously flirting with relegation positions, and they partly blamed Forlan, whose task it is to score goals that allow the team to do well.

But fans often lack a good statistical memory, as well as patience, because Forlan is well-known for netting the ball particularly well towards the end of the season.

Now he has scored 11 goals in his team's last 14 matches in La Liga, the King's Cup and the Europa League, which is almost as impressive as the 17 goals he scored in the last 14 games of the 2008-9 edition of La Liga.

That season he scored 32 goals in total and was the top scorer in the Spanish championship and the winner of the Golden Boot award.

'A title after so many years with Atletico, it's incredible. I play and I enjoy myself, and my job is to score goals,' the Uruguayan said humbly.

To mark the importance of the moment, Forlan's friends and family were in Hamburg to see him play. His mother and his wheelchair-bound sister sneaked into restricted areas to congratulate him.

'Who wept? Who among you wept?' a smiling Forlan asked his friends.

And some confessed that yes, they had shed a few tears.

Forlan is a striker who lacks the prestige, the charisma or the media presence of colleagues like Wayne Rooney or Samuel Eto'o. But this will not have been the first time he catches the eye of Spain's greatest clubs.

The growing Sevilla, set to play Atletico Madrid Wednesday in the King's Cup final in Barcelona, know him too, and they should beware: Forlan turns 31 on the day, and he may well want to give himself a birthday present in the form he so much enjoys, a couple of goals.