Footballers are a competitive bunch. The will to win is rarely expressed on the field.
When Manchester United strikers Diego Forlan and Ruud van Nistelrooy faced off on a tennis court at Nike's Portland headquarters during a 2003 pre-season tour, tension reigned.
Sir Alex Ferguson and her United team-mates looked on. Fergie had apparently bet on Forlan winning the tie-breaker before training.
“Everyone wanted to see who would win. I was under a lot of pressure,” recalls Forlan, 45, who is preparing to make his debut as a professional tennis player in his native Uruguay next month.
“Ruud played a lot – not as much as me, but he still knew how to play.”
After some fluctuations in serve, Forlan beat Van Nistelrooy “in the end”.
What United's current interim manager didn't know – the wily Ferguson had usually never missed a beat – was that Forlan had a pretty good pedigree.
After football/2019/aug/07/diego-forlan-retires-after-21-year-playing-career-football-uruguay” class=”ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0″>is retiring in 2019, externalForlan had more time for tennis. He focused on fitness and social benefits, playing with friends in the Montevideo club league.
His competitive spirit was awakened and in 2023 the left-hander made his debut on the ITF Masters Tour. He is now ranked 113th in the world in the over 45 category.
He received a bigger reward when he received a wildcard for the Uruguay Open doubles on the ATP Challenger Tour – the tier below where Novak Djokovic and others compete.
“If you had asked me as a soccer player whether I would play on the ATP Tour, I couldn’t have imagined it,” said Forlan, who counts Boris Becker, Ivan Lendl and Goran Ivanisevic among his idols.
“I didn’t know if I would play tennis, even though it was a sport I really liked.”
