Radamel Falcao has Yorkshire roots... his great-grandfather was an accountant from Selby, says Manchester United star's dad as he reveals striker's tough childhood

• Radamel Falcao's great-grandfather was from North Yorkshire
• George King moved to South America from England in 1932 - but unlike his great-grandson, he had no interest in football
• When Falcao was a teenager his father applied for a British passport to help his son make the move to Europe but it was rejected 
• Falcao grew up playing on pitches full of stones against older kids 
• Falcao's father, Radamel Garcia, was a defender who later coached striker

By Carl Worswick

Published: 16:36 EST, 15 October 2014 | Updated: 14:07 EST, 16 October 2014

From the moment he was born, Radamel Falcao was destined to be a footballer. Named after the Brazilian great who lit up the 1982 World Cup, and son of a former player, Falcao was plunged into a world immersed in the beautiful game.

His early years were spent being dragged around Colombia and Venezuela as his father, Radamel Garcia, fanned the dying embers of his own playing career. From the sidelines young Falcao was ever present; observing, copying, learning.

Radamel’s influence was fundamental. A defender himself, he coached Falcao in the ways of his nemesis, the striker, while steering his son through his formative years on a regime of dedication, sacrifice and professionalism.

Radamel Falcao, celebrating his first Manchester United goal, was destined to be a footballer

Falcao's father Radamel Garcia, with Colombia legend Carlos Valderrama (right), was also a footballer

Falcao, (top row, fifth left) played for the Bogota junior team before becoming a world-class striker

Man United's Falcao was a football-crazy toddler

Radamel took charge of his son’s career and even fixed up Falcao’s first professional contract - worth £50 a week - before his debut appearance in the Colombian second division as a 13-year-old - a ‘youngest player’ record that still stands.

Falcao went on to become one of the world’s most prolific strikers, a man now tasked with helping Manchester United reassert themselves as one of the top teams in Europe.

Fifteen years on from his debut, he has reached the top. Louis van Gaal’s deadline-day swoop coaxed him from Monaco to the physical, fast-paced Premier League. It is Falcao’s biggest test, but sitting in a newly opened bar in the north of the Colombian capital Bogota, owner Radamel reveals an added incentive for his son to be a success at Old Trafford.

Falcao’s family has English roots. It is a curious genealogical detail that few know about, even in Colombia.

‘I’m proud of my English blood,’ Radamel says extending his arm and patting down on his veins as he sits finishing lunch in La Cueva del Tigre (The Tiger’s Cave) bar. ‘My grandfather was English and also a sportsman.’

Daniel, his business partner, smirks, clearly amused by the comment. It is easy to see why. Like his son, Radamel was born in Santa Marta, the same Caribbean city as iconic Colombian midfielder Carlos Valderrama. He has hardened mestizo skin and peppers his conversation with expressions used only by people from the northern coast.

After stumbling over a few English words he gives up and launches into the story of how a young man from Yorkshire came to Colombia in the inter-war period, fell in love with a local girl and had five children. One of those, Denis, is Falcao’s grandma.

A few decades later, this English family link led Radamel to visit the British embassy to request a passport for his teenage son who was about to sign for River Plate.

Manchester United's Radamel Falcao's incredible career so far

Fifteen years on from making his debut as a 13-year-old, Falcao reached England by joining Manchester United

‘He was probably about 13 so I went down to the embassy thinking that a British passport would help him with a move to Europe. Unfortunately it got rejected,’ says Radamel.

Great-grandfather, George King, was one branch too far up the Garcia family tree for Falcao to be given British citizenship. And so disappeared the opportunity of Falcao ever playing for England.

In 1932 in the small North Yorkshire village of Burn, a few miles south of Selby, a man in his mid-twenties and his pregnant wife packed their bags for a new life in South America.

George had accepted a post as an accountant in northern Colombia. For a young couple who had grown up through the horrors of the First World War and the economic uncertainties of the 1920s it was the chance of a new start far away from a Europe groaning under the strain of the Great Depression.

Shortly after George arrived in Colombia, tragedy struck when his wife died during childbirth. With Europe again drifting towards war, George chose to stay and devote his energies to his work.

Falcao, whose great-grandfather was from Yorkshire, has more than 50 caps for Colombia

Falcao, playing in a friendly against Canada on Tuesday, missed this summer's World Cup through injury

Employed by a subsidiary of the American-owned United Fruit Company, George was an important man, but his employers were involved in one of Colombia’s biggest scandals of the era. At the end of 1928, four years before the Yorkshireman arrived, striking workers at the banana plantation where George was to work marched in protest against their slave-like working conditions.

Under pressure from the UFC, the government sent in the army. It was a Sunday and as protesters mixed with churchgoers, troops blocked exit points from the main square and opened fire. Nobody knows how many died, but some estimates claim up to 2,000.

After George was widowed he fell for a Colombian girl, Juliana, with whom he had five children; Jack, Roy, Carlos, Telma and Denis - Falcao’s grandma. 

Now in her eighties and still living in the city where Falcao was born, she says her father was a ‘calm, well-educated man who spoke slowly and was respected’.

Unlike his great-grandson, King, she says, showed no interest in football, but was a keen golfer who used to play at the United Fruit Company facilities.

In 1960 the Frutera Sevilla subsidiary was liquidised and King was responsible for organising the financial arrangements in winding the company down.

Five reasons Radamel Falcao will star for Manchester United

Falcao first arrived in Europe from Argentine side River Plate, signing for Portuguese giants Porto in 2009

‘They gave him the money to sort out, but as he was leaving he was murdered by people who stole the money,’ recalls Denis. It was a tragic end to the Yorkshireman’s 28 years in South America.

Speaking to Radamel now, it is clear that his son’s childhood had a major influence on his football career. As well as having to deal with being uprooted every few months due to his father’s own career path, Falcao had to toughen up very quickly.

‘In Santa Marta the pitches were full of stones. I often remember Falcao coming home bleeding after falling over or kicking a rock with the bottom of his foot. But he just brushed it off and carried on playing,’ Radamel recalls.

Playing with bigger kids and ignoring the pain became a theme of Falcao’s early years. It perhaps also helped him overcome the three serious knee injuries he later suffered for River Plate and Monaco.

Aged five, Falcao left his friends behind as his family moved to Venezuela. For young Falcao, football now had a rival.

‘I remember one day he came to me with a bloody nose suffered when one of the kids had thrown a ball at his face,’ says Radamel. ‘He begged me to teach him how to play baseball, Venezuela’s national sport, to stop the other kids making fun of him. So, that same night, we began practising with the bat and ball.’

Newspaper cuttings and photographs show Falcao with his father, as well as in action for River Plate

Falcao celebrates following Atletico Madrid's Europa League victory in 2012

Falcao later joined a team and his coach begged Radamel to let the boy continue playing after being impressed by his potential. 

But Radamel gently steered Falcao back to football and by the time the family returned to Colombia in 1995 the youngster had started to take the sport seriously. After trials for Bogota’s big two sides Santa Fe and Millonarios, he landed under the wing of Radamel, who was now a youth coach at La Gaitana.

While out on the training field, Radamel bumped into a former team-mate, Argentine Silvano Espindola, who had founded a school that forged sport with the Christian faith. 

‘To be a champion on the pitch, you have to be a champion off it,’ was the Fair Play motto. It combined the guidance of the church with the round ball.

Espindola was on the lookout for a striker and gave Falcao a trial. The Argentine was convinced, claiming he had never seen somebody of Falcao’s potential since Diego Maradona. ‘This kid is a monster,’ Espindola said. ‘We have a real phenomenon on our hands.’

The Garcia family had fallen on hard times and Radamel had bought a taxi to help pay the bills. Falcao often did not have enough to pay his bus fare to training and instead had to hitch-hike from one side of the city to the other. ‘For games we used to turn up in the yellow taxi,’ Radamel says.

Silvano convinced Radamel to let Falcao join Fair Play. ‘He won’t just learn how to play football here,’ he assured, while also offering Radamel a coaching job and enrolling Falcao’s sisters, Melanie and Michelle, in the church school.

The moral grounding the church sought to instil helped Falcao stay clear of the scandals that had surrounded players from Colombia’s golden generation of the 1990s, such as Faustino Asprilla. ‘Look at Maradona,’ Radamel would warn his son. ‘Don’t follow his path, never fight with anyone and don’t talk bad of people.’

Wearing the No 10 shirt of his idol Maradona, Falcao’s career took off. He scored a record 56 goals in 1997 and after rejecting a $200,000 move to Ajax because, according to his dad, ‘it wasn’t the right time’ he finally made his professional debut. Espindola had entered a team in the Colombian second division and, with Radamel as assistant to coach Hernan Pacheco, they decided to give Falcao his first start.

Falcao holds the Europa League trophy following Atletico's victory against Athletic Bilbao in the 2012 final

Falcao, who arrived from Monaco, made it to Old Trafford via spells in Argentina, Portugal, Spain and France

VIDEO Falcao wants long-term United stay

‘Falcao’s hero was Boca Juniors striker Martin Palermo, who missed three penalties in one game for Argentina,’ Pacheco recalls. ‘Falcao would cut his hair like him and desperately tried to copy him. It wasn’t really about his way of playing, more his style.’

On August 29, 1999 Falcao made history. ‘Silvano and Hernan had already agreed he was going to play a few days before the game against Pereira. He came on with 20 minutes left and straight away he was crunched. Everybody winced, but he just got up and carried on,’ Radamel says. Those rocky pitches in Santa Marta had left their mark.

‘After that I remember he was dragged out of class because the BBC wanted to interview him,’ a childhood friend recalls. Seven games later, and after scoring his first professional goal aged 14 against El Condor in 2000, Falcao again bade farewell to Colombia. Initially, he was to join Argentinian side Velez Sarsfield, but a deal collapsed due to wrangles over player ownership. Falcao instead joined Buenos Aires rivals River Plate.

Falcao's hero was Boca Juniors frontman Martin Palermo, who famously missed three penalties in one game

It was the start of a career that would eventually lead him to Old Trafford via Portugal, Spain and France. Aged 28 he stands just six goals short of replacing Arnoldo Iguaran as Colombia’s all-time leading marksman with 25. El Tigre, as Falcao is now known, has also hit more than 100 goals since moving to Europe five years ago.

It has earned him a place as one of the world’s most complete strikers and left his father proud. ‘This is a really important step for his career. This has always been my big wish and it’s come true for both of us,’ Radamel beamed.

It’s a sentiment great-grandad George would surely share.

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