Former teammate Gonzalo Luduena claims it was him who gave Atletico Madrid striker Radamel Falcao his El Tigre, or the Tiger, nickname.
The pair were youngsters in Argentine club River Plate’s legendary youth academy and reserve system when they first came across each other, and winger Luduena [pictured], who now plays in Ecuador with Manta, says it was him that gave Falcao the nickname he has become synonymous with.
“It was me. I gave him it when we played in Division Seven with River’s youth team. It was Falcao’s first year in Argentina and I had also recently arrived from Cordoba. To tell you the truth it started as a joke,” said Luduena, in an interview with AS.
“We had just beaten Huracan on one of River’s side pitches and Falcao had scored two. At the time the television programme Futbol de Primera awarded the best player in games the Esso Tiger [from a petrol company advertisement], so I joked with Falcao that he had been ‘our tiger on the pitch’ and from then on I started to call him El Tigre in training.
“It stuck and look how it turned out as everyone now calls him that!”
The 26-year-old revealed that he still keeps in touch with the Colombian although their career paths have taken completely different courses.
“We still talk. Thanks to God I have a lovely friendship with him and, beyond him being a monster as a player, he is also an excellent person. Both I and my family love him very much and we remain in contact and chat on our mobile phones.
“I saw the two goals he scored for Colombia recently and that made me happy as he deserves to be doing well. He always calls me and tells me about things. The other day he told me he had made a commercial with some tigers, haha.
“I joked with him that I was going to start charging copyright for the nickname,” he smiled.
