Incredibly, he made his professional debut for Deportivo Pereira at the age of just 13, making him the youngest player to ever appear professionally in Colombian football.

At the age of 14 he moved to Argentina to pursue his dream of becoming a professional footballer. It was there that he flourished, establishing himself as one of the most exciting players at River Plate.

After overcoming a serious knee injury in 2006, he returned to lead River Plate to the Clausura title and earn a move to Europe with Porto.

It was the realization of a dream for a player which had begun life with one simple dream -- to become one of the best striker's on the planet.

"Thanks to lots of training and hard work, I was able to succeed and be able to shine above other players of my age," Falcao said.

"This is work that took a long time, many years in terms of knowing the position, the development of my abilities and also the talent and potential that I was born with.

"Through lots of training, I went along perfecting it, along with knowing the team that I play with, both Atletico Madrid and my national team, which allowed my good development as a striker."

While league and cup success with Atletico remains his priority, the opportunity to lead Colombia into battle at the 2014 World Cup is high up on the agenda.

Colombia has not appeared at the World Cup finals since 1998, but is third in the South American qualifying section. The top four of the nine competing nations will automatically qualify for Brazil, while the fifth-placed team goes into a playoff against an Asia confederation side.

Falcao who has scored five goals in six qualifying games, wants the latest generation of Colombian talent to write their own records and emerge from the shadow of former great players such as Carlos Valderrama and Faustino Asprilla.

"We're forming quite a strong team and hopefully we can manage to qualify for the World Cup and for the next few World Cups and bring lots of other triumphs and victories home," he said.

"I don't like comparisons too much -- we simply want to write our own history and hope that it's important for our country."