For Mata and Falcao, a Fresh Start and an Early Finish

The world is not perfect, even for soccer’s elite.Mata has lost the better part of half of this current season because he fell out of favor with his London club, Chelsea. He was perfectly healthy. His attitude had not changed. He had not lost his skills or his appetite to play, and the fans had voted him their Player of the Year for the past two seasons.But Mata spent from August until now mostly on the bench. José Mourinho, who returned to Chelsea as manager last year, changed the team’s tactical approach, and Mata became at best a substitute.He was sold for 37 million pounds, or about $61 million, plus salary, to Manchester United on Saturday.That, to date, became the most expensive move in the January transfer window that still has a week to go.Falcao was sold for even more money, a reported $80-million-plus transfer fee, when he left Atlético Madrid for Monaco last summer. He was adjusting to the new league, the new life, until his left knee buckled under the weight of a clumsy challenge during a French Cup match last Wednesday.He underwent surgery in Portugal on Saturday. In what became a very public aftermath to that operation, Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos, posed for photographs with him at his bedside.Falcao’s surgeon confirmed that the operation to repair a tear in the anterior cruciate ligament had gone as well as could be expected. “I’m going to exaggerate a little, but I think he’ll have a 50 percent chance of going,” the surgeon, Dr. José Carlos Noronha, said, according to Reuters. “We must go step by step, and within three and a half months we’ll be able to say something more sure.”Pressed by the assembled reporters and TV crews, the doctor said more. He said that every patient recovers at a different pace. That the surgery entailed a graft onto the torn tissue. That anterior cruciate ligament injuries cannot be rushed. But, Noronha concluded, “The light at the end of the tunnel isn’t small.”Falcao — called El Tigre, or the Tiger — burst out when he was a mere 13 years and 199 days old, playing with the players on his Colombian team, Lanceros Boyacá. Even then, he was quick and brave, and he would go for the main chance — the goal — no matter the odds against him.We have gotten to know Falcao’s opportunism at the highest level since then. He moved from Colombia to River Plate in Argentina. And then to Porto in 2009, which, combined with the fact that his agent is Portuguese, was why he knew and trusted the surgeon there.Porto sold him in 2011 to Atlético Madrid, where he scored at a phenomenal rate. Not the least of those goals was the hat trick that he scored in August 2012 in the U.E.F.A. Super Cup against Chelsea, which at the time was the European champion.A few months earlier, Mata had set up Didier Drogba’s tying goal late in regulation in the Champions League final. Falcao had scored time and again as his teams, first Porto and then Atlético, won Europa League trophies. And after their game in Monaco, Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich strongly tried to buy Falcao and put him on the end of Mata’s fine crosses.It never happened. Falcao had long been a player owned by a complicated arrangement of clubs, of agents, of third parties. Chelsea, and others, did not get a chance when Monaco, owned by another Russian billionaire, Dmitry Rybolovlev, won the auction to buy him, helped in part by the principality’s tax breaks.Brave and prolific and whole-hearted as a player, Falcao has another side. He is devoutly Christian, a leader of religious youth groups like Campeones Para Cristo, or Champions for Christ.Before his operation, Falcao tweeted: “I am not going to hide that my sadness is huge. My heart is destroyed. But I still hold faith of playing at the World Cup. God makes the impossible possible. I believe in Him!!”RECENT COMMENTSmanutx 10 hours agoHaving the miss fortune of going through an ACL surgery experince with my daughter. At best it's a good nine months of recovery and protocol...Sam 12 hours agoSo, if Falcao is unable to play for Colombia at the WC (which I certainly hope is not the case), will he amend his statement to "God makes...Dave 16 hours agoSad to see Mata go, but the club seems to be doing better without him on the pitch under Mourinho. Should be interesting to see how he fits...SEE ALL COMMENTS  WRITE A COMMENTThis is not Falcao’s first knee surgery. It became the most public because of the circumstances. Falcao came round from the anesthetic to find Colombia’s president and first lady at his bedside. The president had stopped in Porto after leaving the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.“Falcao is in good spirits,” Santos told reporters outside the hospital, according to news reports. “He has become a symbol of the national team.”Falcao later responded, via Monaco’s website: “I think Mr. President is the spokesman for 47 million Colombians who were praying to God for the surgery and my recovery.”As those messages were exchanged, Mata cleared his own medical assessment before signing with Manchester. He, too, used his personal website to communicate to Chelsea fans. “Before last summer, my intention was to stay here for a long time; as long as the club wanted me to,” Mata wrote.“Things changed after the preseason,” he added. “From feeling like an important player, I started to experience some difficult situations, and I felt unable to help the team to the extent that I wanted to and was used to.”He was sorry not to say goodbye in person, but would never forget the good times in Chelsea blue. Come Monday, he will be in Manchester United red.In sports, you play for the team that wants you.(nytimes.com)ANN.Az