Remember Radamel Falcao? He scored twice in the Champions League and is apparently still a thing

Radamel Falcao has never been the same.

Before The Injury, he was one of the best strikers in Europe, and certainly the most coveted. His rise from Colombia had been meteoric. He’d made his professional debut in his native league’s second division as a 13-year-old. That earned him a transfer to South American powerhouse River Plate in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he’d mature into a double-digit goalscorer.

FC Porto brought him to Europe. He was an instant hit in Portugal, scoring 25 league goals in just 28 games in his first season there. Two years later, he was off to Atletico Madrid as the latest successor in its long run of superstar strikers, to replace Kun Aguero, who had left for Manchester City. Falcao, named in honor of a Brazilian legend by his father, also a pro, was an elite striker within a year. In back-to-back Europa League victories with Porto and Atletico, he scored a combined 30 goals in that competition alone, an astonishing rate of return in a continental competition.

In the summer of 2013, he was bought by AS Monaco, splashing its newly ample cash, for some $70 million — making him one of the world’s most expensive players — and an annual salary north of $20 million net, making him one of the planet’s best-paid as well.

His instinct for goal seemed preternatural. He moved silently into the avenues where the ball was about to be, popping up in the box to apply the final finish. He was fast, he was clinical and, remarkably at just 5-foot-9, he was strong in the air. The complete striker.

But in January of 2014, just months before he was supposed to star at the World Cup in Brazil for his country, he injured his anterior cruciate ligaments in a French cup game against fourth-division club Monts d’Or Azergues Foot.

Falcao was healed by the end of the summer. And with Monaco shedding its biggest contracts while its Russian owner tightened his belt in the wake of a multi-billion euro divorce settlement — yes, multi-billion — he was loaned out to Manchester United, which retained an option to buy him outright after the season for almost as much as he’d cost Monaco.

But Falcao proved a shadow of his former self, slow and static and ineffective in the air. He scored just four times in 26 Premier League appearances. United declined its option and Chelsea loaned him the following year, last season. Chelsea also negotiated a potential purchase price, even though the Colombian was, by now, a reclamation project. He played in 10 league games, scored once, saw his option declined yet again, and returned to Monaco.

So far this season, he hadn’t particularly distinguished himself with a solid but unremarkable two goals in five league games. Until Wednesday.

On Wednesday, we finally saw some flashes of the old Falcao.

His first of two goals for Monaco in its 3-0 win against CSKA Moscow was simple.

The second, however, was vintage Falcao.

And that set off a flurry of funny Twitter reactions.

Welcome back, Falcao.

You were missed.