Story highlights
- Colombian has scored 25 goals in 32 games
- Scoring every 87.5 minutes this season
Monaco (CNN)They said he was finished -- that El Tigre would never roar again following the serious injury he suffered in January 2014.
Radamel Falcao, among the highest-paid players in English Premier League history; Radamel Falcao, scorer of just five goals in two Premier League seasons.
So English football supporters could have been forgiven for rubbing their eyes in disbelief in February as he raced through Manchester City's defense, casually brushing aside John Stones before sumptuously dinking the ball over Willy Caballero.
Here he was, reborn on the biggest stage of all. Back at AS Monaco and back in business, three years on from his lowest ebb after he tore his anterior cruciate ligament, leading the line for the most prolific team in Europe.
"You learn from every experience, both good and bad," muses Falcao, speaking to CNN in a rare interview. "My time in England gave me experiences which I've learned from and have made me better.
"I was always sure that when I had continuity in matches and minutes, my form would return to the level I was used to and the goals, as a matter of consequence, would come."
Photos: Is this European football's most exciting side this season?
It's a familiar sight for AS Monaco fans this season -- their club's star players celebrating goals.
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Photos: Is this European football's most exciting side this season?
Monaco has scored 98 goals in Ligue 1 so far this season. Radamel Falcao, the club's top goalscorer this season with 25, has lead what's become one of Europe's most feared attacks.
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Photos: Is this European football's most exciting side this season?
Falcao, who previously played for European clubs Manchester United, Chelsea, Porto and Atletico Madrid, has been supported up front by teenager Kylian Mbappe. The 18-year-old Mbappe, who has scored 14 goals in Ligue 1 this season, recently became the second-youngest player to play for France when he made his debut against Luxembourg in March.
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Photos: Is this European football's most exciting side this season?
Defensive midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko, another member of the young, emerging talent at Monaco, also made his France debut against Luxembourg.
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Photos: Is this European football's most exciting side this season?
Monaco's Stade Louis II is located in the idyllic French Riviera on the Mediterranean coast. As a commercial center, the city-state has come to attract a wealthy clientele.
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Photos: Is this European football's most exciting side this season?
Prince Albert II, the reigning monarch of Monaco, is regularly seen in the stands during home games.
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Photos: Is this European football's most exciting side this season?
Falcao and his wife Lorelei Taron met Prince Albert before signing for Monaco. "It was a unique meeting," the Colombian tells CNN Sport of the day he and his wife visited the Prince's Palace. "To see that backing not only from the people that managed the club but also the city made the balance tilt towards me signing for Monaco."
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Photos: Is this European football's most exciting side this season?
Russian businessman Dimitri Rybolovlev bought a stake in Monaco's football team in December 2011. Now club president, his investment has helped bring high profile signings to the club such as Falcao and Portugal's Joao Moutinho. However, now the club's strategy is "to develop young players and let them go when the time is right," Monaco's chief executive officer Vadim Vasilyev told CNN Sport.
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Photos: Is this European football's most exciting side this season?
Vasilyev (C) is pictured with Monaco players Djibril Sidibe, Corentin Jean (currently on loan at Toulouse), Benjamin Mendy, Morgan de Sanctis and Kamil Glik.
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Photos: Is this European football's most exciting side this season?
Currently top of Ligue 1, if Les Rouges et Blancs were to be crowned the champions of France, they would break Paris Saint-Germain's run of four consecutive titles.
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Photos: Is this European football's most exciting side this season?
Monaco has also enjoyed a fine run of form in the Champions League. A thrilling last-16 tie against Manchester City ended 6-6, with the French side going through on away goals. It was the sort of counter-attacking, high-scoring display that has come to define this side.
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Photos: Is this European football's most exciting side this season?
Monaco overcame German side Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League quarterfinals to reach the semis. The French club were beaten by Juventus in the first leg.
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Photos: Is this European football's most exciting side this season?
Monaco reached the Champions League final in 2004 but were beaten 3-0 by Porto, then coached by Jose Mourinho.
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Photos: Is this European football's most exciting side this season?
Despite the high-octane performances and abundance of goals, Monaco usually doesn't attract big crowds at their home games. Last season saw an average attendance of 7,836, and a Champions League game against Bayer Leverkusen (pictured) in September was watched by just 8,100 people. However the second-leg tie against Dortmund is a sell-out, with the club saying it could have sold 50,000 tickets.
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Photos: Is this European football's most exciting side this season?
But that doesn't seem to be bothering the players, who are flying high with club and country.
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'Getting confidence back'
That continuity has had consequences for both French and European football, with Monaco top of Ligue 1 and emerging as a Champions League dark horse.
Falcao is presently finding the net every 87.5 minutes in Ligue 1, compared to once every 228 minutes with Chelsea and every 322 minutes at Manchester United.
Only PSG's Edison Cavani, Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski can boast a better scoring ratio in Europe's top five leagues this season.
What's behind the success of AS Monaco? 03:01
There are those that will diminish such achievements -- as was once the case with Zlatan Ibrahimovic -- contending the French division presents less of a challenge.
Try telling that to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola or Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino, with both dumped out of Europe's premier club competition by high-flying Monaco this season.
"It was only a question of getting confidence back and feeling like an important part of the team," says Falcao, when asked to explain his resurgence.
"Every weekend playing matches and getting minutes -- this is definitely what has made the difference."
"This club have always been behind me, supporting me. They know the qualities I have not just as a footballer, but as a person."
'Shackled'
Falcao might be approaching the form that saw him score an astonishing 142 goals in 178 appearances during his years at FC Porto and Atlético Madrid, but the Colombian is the first to admit the dark times still haunt him.
The 31-year-old's loan spells at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge coincided with two of the clubs' worst seasons in recent memory.
Goals per 90 minutes
Falcao (Monaco, 2016/17) -- 1.03
Falcao (Chelsea, 2015/16) -- 0.37
Falcao (Man Utd, 2014/15) -- 0.28
Reported to be earning over $300,000 per week at United and Chelsea, media outlets wasted no time comparing the Colombian to the likes of Fernando Torres and Andriy Shevchenko, expensive flops of years gone by at the London club.
Falcao says he was shackled by former United manager Louis Van Gaal's tactics -- forced to contribute more to the buildup and "spend less time in the box" where he had been so deadly.
At Chelsea, Jose Mourinho vowed to restore Falcao to his former powers, telling reporters it "hurt" him to think people regarded the player's debut Premier League season as indicative of his true prowess.
Goals per game
Falcao (Monaco, 2016/17) -- 25 in 32
Falcao (Chelsea, 2015/16) -- 1 in 12
Falcao (Man Utd, 2014/15) -- 4 in 29
But after signing Falcao on his return to Chelsea in 2015/16, even the so-called "Special One" was unable to redeem the Colombian, handing him just one league start.
Once perhaps the most feared out-and-out striker in Europe, Falcao had become increasingly forlorn and practically forgotten.
'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger'
Not that he ever let the detractors get him down. Falcao argues he is stronger now -- and not just as a player, but as a person.
"Everything in life is a lesson and one can take advantage of this if they can find something in every situation," he asserts.
"These type of adverse experiences teach you and I tried to learn; to assimilate as much as possible; and to put into practice as much as possible.
"For me, it was like this: I didn't let that moment pass without gaining something for my life."
Falcao tells CNN he received a number of lucrative offers from the Chinese Super League in the winter transfer window, but turned them down due to unfinished business in Europe.
"I have some goals in that I'd like to achieve and I hope to achieve them," says Falcao.
"In the future, you never know. Maybe the opportunity pops up to go play there or in the US or go back to South America.
"They're situations that you analyze when they arise together with your family and you'll make the right decision."
World Cup pain
Many recall the Colombian's travails at United and Chelsea, but it shouldn't be forgotten that Falcao's dreams of playing at the 2014 World Cup were also scuppered by the injury to his knee.
"It's a personal dream of mine to be able to play at the World Cup," he smiles, with Colombia in second place behind Brazil in South American qualification for the 2018 tournament.
"To represent one's country for any footballer is the best. We all dream as kids of being able to one day put on the shirt for your country, to represent it and to hear the anthem.
"It's such a large number of emotions that I've had the opportunity to enjoy over many years in my career and I'd like to keep doing so, above all in the World Cup in Russia."
Champions League dreams
No tale of redemption would be complete without a happy ending.
Falcao has scored four goals in four Champions League appearances this season, and it is Monaco -- not Chelsea or Manchester United -- that sit pretty in the quarterfinals.
He swells with pride to consider the "unity and mentality" that each player has, and dreams of adding a Champions League winner's medal to the two Europa League titles he won with Porto and Atlético.
"We're very excited for what's going on and what we're doing right now," he says, looking ahead to Monaco's second leg at Stade Louis II.
"We have a very strong rival in Dortmund, but I think it's a very level tie. Our hope is to beat them and go on in the competition.
"I think that surely with the same conviction, work and concentration that this team has shown, we can still get better and better as a group. Hopefully that will be enough to beat Dortmund."
