Hundreds of people arrived at the Pascual Guerrero stadium in Cali this Saturday to say goodbye to Colombian soccer legend Freddy Rincón, who died on Wednesday at the age of 55 after a traffic accident.
Source: AFP
The city where Rincón captivated the eyes of foreign talent scouts in the early 1990s opened the doors of its stadium so that fans, leaders and glories of Colombian soccer paid one last tribute to the former player of Palmeiras, Corinthians, Real Madrid, Naples and of the local America of Cali.
“If we cry, we cry for feeling, appreciation and affection…. Freddy is an example of life for this country,” said World Cup coach Jorge Luis Pinto, who in 1986 led Rincón to the first division of Colombian soccer with Santa Fe from the capital.
In front of Pinto, a gallery of fans was moved with jerseys from America and the Colombia team, with which the late midfielder played three World Cups (Italy-1990, United States-1994 and France-1998).
Faustino Asprilla, René Higuita, Óscar Córdoba, coach Francisco Maturana and other idols of that golden generation of coffee football accompanied Freddy Steven and Sebastián, sons of ‘El Coloso’, on a platform behind one of the goals.
A Catholic mass began the ceremony, which was also set to music from the Colombian Pacific, where Rincón was born in a poor Afro home.
The midfielder entered Colombia’s World Cup history in 1990, when he scored the goal of the 1-1 draw against Germany -the eventual world champion- with which the coffee growers advanced to the second phase of the highest soccer tournament for the first time.
In the early hours of Monday, he was involved in a violent collision with a bus that left five injured, the most serious of them being Rincón, who suffered a “severe head injury.”
He died Wednesday night in an intensive care unit in Cali. On Friday he was fired with a caravan in his native port of Buenaventura.
– World mourning –
‘El Coloso’ also earned a special place in the hearts of Corinthians fans, where he was captain and lifted the first edition of the FIFA Club World Cup in 2000, played in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, before hanging up the boots in 2004.
Condolences also came from Naples, where he played 38 games and scored 7 goals in the 1994-1995 season, his first in Europe.
His deployment in defense and attack took him to Real Madrid, but he accused “racism” during his only season with the ‘white house’.
After his retirement, he was imprisoned in Brazil for four and a half months in 2007 at the request of Panama, which was investigating him for drug money laundering. Before he was acquitted in 2016, he survived a first traffic accident in 2013 in which he suffered multiple broken bones and a head injury.
One of the Rincón occupants in Monday’s fatal accident told authorities that the former soccer player was behind the wheel at the time of the crash.
The family of the deceased denies this version.
