"My first memories from my childhood are being with him inside a dressing room, at training sessions, him taking me by the hand," Radamel Falcao says. His is a family story, which makes it a football story too, told through photographs and in the quiet, almost gentle voice that characterises him, a hint of timidity in the man they call "The Tiger."
It is not just that each stage of Falcao's remarkable career is captured on camera all the way back to Lanceros Boyacá -- from River Plate to Porto, from Atletico Madrid to Manchester United, from Chelsea to Galatasaray and now, at Rayo Vallecano -- it is that each stage of his childhood is too, charted from club to club. In the family album, he appears in red, blue, white and yellow, just a little kid, but a little bigger each time. He does so alongside his favourite footballer, dressed in the same kit: Independiente de Medellín, Deportivo Táchira, Mineros de Guayana and the rest.
Radamel Enrique García King played for Colombia at the 1980 Olympic Games. He also played for eight different clubs across Colombia and Venezuela. Radamel Falcao García Zárate, his son, followed him everywhere. When his father retired in 1996, Falcao was 10 years old. Incredibly, he was also only three years from his own professional debut and it would soon be Radamel Sr.'s turn to go to games, roles reversed.
In January 2019, Falcao's father sadly passed away. He had seen his son play at six clubs in six different countries and score more goals for Colombia than anyone else ever, arguably the greatest footballer in their history. Now at Rayo Vallecano, Falcao wears No. 3. It is an unusual number for a striker, but it is the number his father wore. There could be no better homage. Except of course that the whole thing is: his whole career, arguably the best any Colombian has ever had, who he is and the way he is too.
Falcao speaks softly; there is just one word he really stresses, really projects, in the conversation and it is the moment he defines the impact his father had on him. "Muchísima," he says.
"My passion for this game was born because of him," Falcao says. "I got so much advice from him. The values with which I make my way through life, and this game, were inherited from my father. He was a vital person in all aspects of my life."
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A few years ago, Radamel Sr. spoke at a conference under the title "How to Make a Tiger of Your Son," and there was certainly something in that. Radamel's nickname wasn't given to him by his father -- it was rather the work of Gonzalo Ludueña when he was playing in the seventh tier at River -- but so much else was, including his position and his actual name. Falcao is not the Rayo striker's surname, but his middle name, after the former Brazilian international Paulo Falcao.
Some player, that's for sure. No pressure, kid. There's a smile. "Well, at least he had good taste," Falcao says, laughing softly. "He enjoyed good football and he had an admiration for Falcao. I've never had the chance to meet him. Obviously, I'd love to meet him: I'm named in his honor. In the end, my dad convinced my mother to let him name me like him."
Was that hard? Another smile. "I imagine so."
Radamel was a defender, but a father wants the best for his son. "He always encouraged me to become a forward," Falcao says. "He was a defender and told me that defenders suffer a lot. Strikers have more fun."
That joy remains. Falcao's attitude -- his approach, the enthusiasm for it all -- is inherited. The awareness comes from his father too. Playing the game meant that Radamel Sr could guide his son, mould him and prepare him; he could ready him for the reality, too.
El AS Monaco presenta sus condolencias a Radamel Falcao y familia, tras el fallecimiento de su padre, Radamel García King. 🙏 pic.twitter.com/05rPvjaagy
— AS Monaco ES 🇲🇨 (@AS_Monaco_ES) January 4, 2019
"I had the possibility of suckle on professional football, to take it all in," Falcao recalls. "Being surrounded by professional football players inside a dressing room, learning how to handle yourself, seeing the care a player must take, the efforts they had to make, the discipline. At a very early age, living all of this gave me the chance to say that [playing professional football] was what I wanted to do once I got older."
He didn't have to get very much older.
"In Colombia, there used to be a rule that those teams in the Second Division had to field players under 16, even if it was for just a minute," Falcao explains, smiling at the scenario that gave him a debut so young. "All the club's [U16] players were either injured or sent off, so there wasn't anyone else available. I stood out [in my team], but they didn't have me in their plans to play [in the first team] that season. In the end, they had no other choice than to put me on the field..."
It wasn't the way it was planned, but it was a start of a career that would make Falcao one of the best finishers in the game -- maybe the very best. Three hundred goals, rattled in at a ridiculous rate. He scored 72 in 87 games at Porto, and 70 in 92 at Atlético Madrid. Nor was it just his club; it went beyond that. It is almost a decade since he left, but the mark he made in Madrid is still there. Universally popular, there was -- there still is -- a humility that helped explain his success, but tends to be lost as soon as that success arrives.