When Bruno Fornaroli was 12 years old, he made the 500-kilometre bus journey from his home in Salto to Uruguay's capital, Montevideo, to join Nacional, one of the country's largest and most prestigious football clubs.
His parents didn't want him to go, they said he was too small, but he insisted; Playing in Nacional, he told his father, was his dream. Shortly after that trip to the capital began, Fornaroli met someone who would become an old friend, someone who was also headed to Nacional after returning to Salto to see his own family, and who had somehow chosen Fornaroli as a fellow footballer. and sparked a conversation. That person was Luis Suárez, who would go on to become one of the best strikers in the world and, as of last month, the latest player to join Major League Soccer giant Inter Miami CF.
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Salto is something of a football anomaly. A city of only 100,000 inhabitants located on the Uruguayan border with Argentina, is Suárez's hometown, Fornaroli. and The Uruguayan legend Edinson Cavani, among others, is a true goalmine. It was there that Fornaroli's football journey began, marked by a moment of remarkable chance upon meeting Suárez; predicting an odyssey that has been almost defined by his ability to constantly surprise, and take the Uruguayan to unexpected places, far from home.
Some 24 years after that bus trip, Fornaroli finds himself in Doha, Qatar, not preparing to represent Uruguay or thinking about June's Copa América, but rather the AFC Asian Cup. While in his youth he had idolized the likes of Rubén Sosa and Enzo Francescoli, emulating the luminaries of the Uruguayan national team, the 36-year-old now wears green and gold: a member of Australia's 26-player squad competing will be crowned kings of Asia in the coming weeks.
“You'd be surprised!” Fornaroli, reflecting on his younger self, told ESPN. “You would be surprised, but at the same time this is football. It's crazy. That's why it's so exciting. It changes a lot, you never know. You never know in 90 minutes, imagine in a race.”
“That kid would be surprised, but I know I've made the right decisions in my career.
“I'm proud. It's an honor to play against Australia. It's nothing like 'Oh, he couldn't play for Uruguay'. No, no, no. I'm very happy to be here, I have Australian children and my son was born in Melbourne. There are many reasons.”
However, even taking into account the madness that is football, it is somewhat surprising how the careers of Fornaroli and Suárez can be demarcated, even tangentially. For a time, the former was preferred ahead of Suárez in the Nacional youth ranks, accompanying Martín Cauteruccio up front while the latter came off the bench. But eventually Suárez's talent, despite a somewhat wild reputation, saw him outperform his teammates at the academy and earn a call-up to Nacional's first team, before moving to Dutch club Groningen the following year.
“Luis and I spent a lot of time together,” Fornaroli said. “Five years sharing the same dressing room and playing together, we were both number 9 and we have great memories together.
“We are close friends and I am very happy to see him and what he has done for football. Not only for Uruguay or for each club he plays for, I think what he has shown for the new generation. I think he is a player of first level. And I know him as a person and he is even better.”
Fornaroli would debut with Nacional's first team under Daniel Carreño the same year Suárez left, and subsequently moved to Italian side Sampdoria after two good seasons. That's where the similarities between the two friends would end, at least temporarily, as Fornaroli failed to take off in Europe like his compatriot did. Instead, after spells in Italy, Argentina, Spain, a return to Nacional, Greece and Brazil, Fornaroli finally found himself in Australia, playing in the men's A-League with Melbourne City in 2015, a competition in which he began scoring and simply never interrupted. He is now the third top scorer in the competition's 19-year history.
Australia has become Fornaroli's home. The country is all his children have known, and he gained citizenship in 2022. After his famous time at City (51 goals in 71 games in all competitions) ended with his exclusion from then manager Warren Joyce, Fornaroli did not He did not leave the country, but instead signed for a time with Perth Glory, before joining City's bitter rivals, Melbourne Victory, recruited in both stops by their current coach Tony Popovic.
A change to FIFA's eligibility rules in 2020 meant that the former Uruguay under-17 representative was suddenly available for a change of international allegiance and, amid an availability crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fornaroli was called up for Australia for two appearances during qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. It was a highlight for a player who has become beloved in Australia, even among apparent league rivals. His parents flew from Uruguay to watch the game, the first time he saw them in three years after the pandemic closed Australia's borders. But that was supposed to be it, a “break glass in case of emergency” call-up with no future national team appearances in sight. There were no surprises when others returned to the Socceroos organization ahead of Fornaroli in the following months.
But that's what makes Fornaroli's inclusion in Australia's Asian Cup squad so notable. Because he's simply not supposed to be there. At 36, he doesn't fit with coach Graham Arnold's intentions to begin ushering in a new generation as the road to the 2026 World Cup begins, and he doesn't have the history in the team to provide any sort of bonus for his mandate. As a men's A-League player, he has the disincentive of being out of season in the August, September and October international windows. Even Fornaroli admits that he did not consider the possibility of a national return until local journalist Anna Harrington asked him about it after scoring four goals against the Newcastle Jets in late October.
A truly amazing goal from Bruno Fornaroli 🤯🚀
The nutmeg 😮💨 The impressive hit in the top corner 🔥
Dub it like Bruno 🙌
1-1 at half-time @CCMariners and @gomvfc.
📰 https://t.co/3gggNGTLya
#CCMvMVC #ALM pic.twitter.com/XqtJ9D73bO
— Isuzu UTE A-League (@aleaguemen) December 3, 2023
However, with 13 goals in just 10 games to start the 2023-24 season, Fornaroli also had to be included. No Socceroos-eligible forward has played as well or as consistently as the veteran in the run-up to the Asian Cup. His ability to keep the play going, maneuver the ball in tight spaces and his lethal instincts help Fornaroli bring something different to the other forwards on the team. He took the saying “If you're good enough, you're old enough” and turned it on its head. Yes, he's 36, but what kind of message would Arnold have sent to his team about minutes and form if Fornaroli hadn't been picked?
“I realized in the last few years, when you start to realize that you might be coming to the end of your career… I don't want the last few years of my career to not play or perform well.” Fornaroli said. “I want to finish my career enjoying football and giving my best.
“Nacional was the biggest team in Uruguay and when you play for a big team like Nacional… they put it in your head that it doesn't matter who, it doesn't matter if you play at home or away. You have to do it.” gain.”
That Nacional mentality that helps fuel a national team comeback against all odds is appropriate because it is here where we find the other high point between Fornaroli and Suárez: two children from Salto, who refuse to spend the night quietly and instead , experience professional rebirths.
Because Suárez's international career should also have ended. After Uruguay's departure from the 2022 World Cup and the arrival of new coach Marcelo Bielsa, the light blue They were going through their own period of rejuvenation. But Suárez never stopped scoring; 26 goals in 53 games for Brazilian side Grêmio clearly caught the attention of Inter Miami and earned Bielsa a national team call-up during the November window.
“In the current era, when the World Cup qualifiers started, there was a time when Bielsa didn't call him up for a couple of games,” Fornaroli said. “And then he keeps scoring, keeps scoring, keeps scoring and then there comes a point where Bielsa can't look the other way.
“That also showed me that I still believe. Why not? He's my age, he still scores goals and he still performs.”
“That sends a message to everyone, to every player.”
