Thirty-three miserable months after the injury that tore Falcao from his perch as one of the world's most feared strikers, a light finally blinks at the end of the tunnel.
Eight goals in ten games following a return to the French league with Monaco, including four strikes in his last two games, has helped brush a calamitous spell in the English Premier League into the past. El Tigre's form may growl rather than roar these days, but in his native Colombia these flickers of form have caused more than a stir.
On Sunday night when the 30-year-old's plane touched down in the sweaty port of Barranquilla on Colombia's Caribbean coast, a crowd of eager fans had gathered to welcome a hero home.