Clubs: CA River Plate, FC Porto, Club Atlético de Madrid

UEFA honours
UEFA Europa League: winner 2011, winner 2012
UEFA Europa League top scorer: 2010/11, 2011/12

• Left Colombia for Argentina at an early age and spent his formative years in River's youth academy; scored seven in his first seven games before sustaining serious ligament damage to his right knee that would begin a spiral of injury problems lasting for two years.

• Finally regained full fitness in 2007 and won the Argentinian Clausura title in spring 2008 under coach Diego Simeone; maintained his strong form despite River's decline in the 2008/09 season.

• Ended his career at the Buenos Aires club with 45 goals in 111 games in all competitions and figured regularly in Colombia's 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, making ten appearances (one goal).

• Joined Porto in July 2009 and scored in each of his first four league games; finished the campaign with 25 goals from 26 Liga starts − one shy of SL Benfica's Óscar Cardozo, the league's top scorer − and 34 in all competitions.

• Prolific again in 2010/11 as he broke Jürgen Klinsmann's record of 15 goals in a UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League season − registered hat-tricks against SK Rapid Wien (3-1) and FC Spartak Moskva (5-1), scored four times at home to Villarreal CF (5-1) in the semi-final first leg and headed the only goal of the showpiece versus SC Braga.

• Finished fifth in a summer 2011 poll, conducted among a jury of 53 sports journalists, to determine the winner of the inaugural UEFA Best Player in Europe Award − became Atlético's record signing when he moved to the Spanish club a few weeks later for a fee which could reportedly rise to €47m.

• Had no problem acclimatising to Spanish football, finishing as his club's leading scorer and returning the third-highest tally of Liga goals (23) after Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. More significantly, his love affair with the UEFA Europa League continued as he became the first player in the competition to take back-to-back top-scorer honours, plundering 12 goals, including two in the final, to receive his second winners' medal.

• With 29 UEFA Europa League goals in as many games, Falcao is second on the competition's all-time scorers' list.