forlán made his debut for uruguay on 27 march 2002, scoring his first goal in a 3–2 friendly defeat against saudi arabia. during the 2002 world cup, he scored a volley on 11 june 2002 in the group stage 3–3 draw against senegal. despite coming from three goals down to draw the game, uruguay were eliminated from the tournament along with france in group a. diego forlán and youri djorkaeff were, respectively, members of the uruguay and france squads that met in the 2002 world cup, in group a. their respective fathers, pablo and jean, featured in the match between uruguay and france at the 1966 world cup, which was also in group a.