Radamel Falcao, proud Yorkshireman

Big news, folks. Radamel Falcao, though he may seem ever-so-Colombian to the casual glance, is in fact from the wrong side of the Pennines. Well, technically. After a fashion. According to the Daily Mail, Falcao's heritage can be traced back to this rainy island ...

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.

Well, his work and "a Colombian girl, Juliana, with whom he had five children; Jack, Roy, Carlos, Telma and Denis - Falcao's grandma". This and plenty more come from an interview with Falcao's father, also called Radamel, which is well worth a read. Oh, and the Spanish for "whippet" is "lebrel", since you were wondering. Not that tBB would ever stoop to such limp stereotyping.