Whether at Manchester United, Atletico or Osaka, extra training reaps rewards - just ask Ronaldo

In his latest weekly column for The National, Diego Forlan reveals how his desire to train extra at the business end of a season, similarly to Cristiano Ronaldo, has paid dividends throughout his career.

Diego Forlan remembers training at Manchester United alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, another footballer who has famously put in extra hours of training. Victor Carretero/ Getty

Diego Forlan writes a weekly column for The National, appearing each Friday. The former Manchester United, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid striker has been the top scorer in Europe twice and won the Golden Boot at the 2010 World Cup. He currently plays in Japan for Cerezo Osaka. Forlan’s column will be written with the assistance of European football correspondent Andy Mitten

I’ve just left the stadium in Osaka after scoring my first hat-trick since 2009, when I got three for Atletico Madrid against Athletic Bilbao in the second-last game of the season.

Those goals had helped me become Spain’s top scorer — the Pichichi – and win my second golden boot. Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo have won the award every year since.

I scored 32 league goals that season, the most in Spain since the Brazilian Ronaldo in 1997. Messi and Ronaldo have both scored more since and already have 39 and 38 this season.

I feel great, playing in a good team with an excellent manager. Football is not always like this, so you should enjoy these moments. I spotted Uruguay flags among the fans of Cerezo Osaka and they sing the same song — in English — which Manchester United fans sang about me, but they’ve changed the words at the end. I can’t quite pick out the words and I’m usually concentrating too much on playing.

Every player loves to score goals, but hat-tricks should be savoured as they don’t happen very often. One goal was a free-kick from 40 yards.

I love this time of the year as a footballer. It’s different now I’m in Japan because the season runs to another schedule, but in the big European leagues I’ve played in, April and May are when the key games happen. It is where you’re looking forward to winning trophies, a break and maybe a World Cup or Copa America.

In Europe, it means that summer is coming and the weather is getting better. Training takes place in pleasant conditions — even in Manchester — and there’s a feeling that you’re close to reaching your common objectives.

I can’t recall playing for a team who weren’t involved in a fight for points at the end of the season. That would be strange for me. I like every game to matter, to feel like we must win.

Some players tire at the end of the season, but I made the effort to increase my physical activity and training at this time. I wanted to be 100 per cent for the biggest games. Cristiano Ronaldo was the same. He was training by himself before it became more normal for players to do it. We both worked with Mike Clegg in Manchester on weights and stretching.

I’ve seen huge changes in how footballers train and look after themselves in the last decade. Players are far more professional now, more committed to being their very best.

I have heard it said that footballers only work for two hours per day in the week in training and that we have the rest of the time free. That has never been the case with me.

Even as a kid, I’d kick a tennis ball against a wall with both feet for hours. That was one way to become two-footed.

For those big end-of-season games I do extra training, and I even hired my own private physical trainer, Santiago Alfaro, who I met at Villarreal.

He’s been with me 10 years and has experience of different methods in America and Germany, but even before that Ole Gunnar Solsksjaer once told me that I’d trained harder than any player he’d played with.

In the 30 days at Atletico Madrid when we won the 2010 Europa League and reached the Copa del Rey final, Atletico Madrid had 26 training sessions. I had 60. I could see that they made a difference and made me sharper.

I did the same before the 2010 World Cup. Under Santiago, I woke up at 6am and trained at home in the garden or gym, then went home and showered before training with the team.

He’s a close friend. I’ve invited him to come and stay at my house with a big group of family and friends.

That’s another thing I do towards the end of the season — surround myself with the people I like so that I’m comfortable rather than tense around the big games. They enjoyed coming to Spain to see me, and I like going home to a house of smiles and familiar faces like my dad and his friends. They respect that I have to work, but it’s positive to be around them.

I’m 35 now and feel fine playing, but at some point I’ll have to stop. I’ll miss this sport so much. I love training, the travel, the pre-season, playing, the fans. I’ve seen the world because of football and been fortunate to get paid well, too.

It gives you such a huge buzz when it all comes together, especially on the pitch at this time of the year. A hat-trick in Japan may not feel the same as one in Primera Liga, but the buzz is just as good, especially as it has taken such a long time coming.

Diego says watch out for ...

River Plate v Boca Juniors

May 8, 4am (UAE time)

There are some huge games in Argentina during the next week. In the league, it is Independiente v Boca Juniors and Racing v River Plate this weekend. My old team Independiente are 13th and need a win, and Boca are playing well at home and in the Copa Libertadores. Juniors and Plate, the two huge rivals in Argentina, are top of the league and on the same points. Guess which two teams meet next week in the Copa Libertadores? Juniors and Plate in a two-leg knockout tie in the last 16. I might be on the other side of the world, but I cannot wait to watch some great football.

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