287: Jose Rene Higuita, Colombia, Panini Italia 90 World Cup Sticker Album

Emlyn Jones is back with another tale of a moustachioed 90s goalkeeper. However, it’s fair to say that this man’s interpretation of community work might be a bit different from Neville Southall’s. Thanks to Mark Crossley-May, sadly not Mark Crossley, for the suggestion for this one. Rich will be talking about Mark Crossley in our next post though. Anyway, over to Emlyn.

Mention the name Rene Higuita and many will immediately think back to a September 1995 friendly between England and Colombia. Notable not only as one of Steve Howey’s four England caps, this match also saw an innocuous cross-cum-shot from Jamie Redknapp drift slowly towards the curly-maned Higuita’s goal. Eschewing the chance to catch the ball, or chest it down, Higuita instead fell forwards, hurling his heels into the air to repel the ball in the style that became known as the Scorpion kick. This may have been painful to watch for David Seaman at the other end, having been successfully lobbed from similar distance by Nayim some four months previously to lose the Cup Winners’ Cup final. Not that it stopped him managing to do it again against Brazil in 2002.


The moment was replayed frequently for weeks afterwards, and was still notable enough to be voted one of the 100 greatest sporting moments seven years later. For those who had been exposed to ‘El Loco’ prior to this game, the flamboyance would have been no surprise. It reflected the style of play that led to the creation of the sweeper keeper role, and indirectly, the backpass rule, and also a career total of 41 goals – Higuita possessing a fierce shot and frequently taking free kicks and penalties. At times, this adventurousness backfired, no more famously than at the 1990 World Cup, Roger Milla dispossessing him as he attempted to feint past him, and scoring to knock the Colombians out. Higuita apologetically described the error as “as big as a house”.

It was off the field that the Higuita story took a more bizarre and ultimately criminal turn, perhaps unsurprisingly given his close friendships with Diego Maradona and Pablo Escobar. The 1995 friendly against England was one of the first games Higuita played following his return to the side having served a 1993 prison sentence, having been implicated in a kidnapping and delivering a bribe from Escobar to Carlos Molina, ultimately missing the 1994 World Cup as a result. Such activity at the time could be punished by imprisonment without trial, a shame given his defence of “I am a footballer; I had no idea this was illegal”. His £64,000 fee from Escobar presumably didn’t clue him in that the deal was mildly questionable. Although released in time for the 1994 World Cup, lacking fitness, Higuita was left at home.

He ultimately played on until the age of 41, bar a short ban for testing positive for, shockingly for a friend of Escobar and Maradona, cocaine. Playing in Ecuador at the time, Higuita took the opportunity to appear on the Colombian version of ‘Celebrity Island’, becoming noted for his outspoken wisdom, and possibly anecdotes about not being lobbed by Jamie Redknapp. He also reportedly had extensive plastic surgery, which is believable based on the before and after photos.

Higuita is now a goalkeeping coach at Atletico Nacional, the club for whom he played in two spells during his career, following a stint coaching in Saudi Arabia. However, he has reportedly been approached by former Guerrilla group FARC to represent their political party in future elections. Perhaps ‘El Loco’ has a further chapter in his story.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

N/A: Chris Kamara, Sheffield United, Chris Kamara’s Street Soccer, Midas Games

Image
In November 1972 the arcade game Pong made its debut and the gaming industry was born. While not the first attempt to make some computer pixels do not very much for the amusement of the masses it was by far the most commercially successful and, by the end of the decade, the first ever football game was unleashed on the world in the form of NASL Soccer. Judging by the YouTube footage it seemed to involve lots of brightly coloured stick men over hitting through balls and running in the opposite direction to oncoming forwards which may well be what the likes of Trevor Francis , Johan Cruyff and Gerd Muller were getting up to over in the US at the time. Throughout the 1980s the games became more realistic and a host of star players and managers put their names on products of variable quality. Peter Shilton’s Handball Maradona (not that he is anyway bitter about being out jumped by a midget) gave youngsters the opportunity to fulfil their goalkeeping fantasies in a range of scenarios with r
Read more

269: Trifon Ivanov, Bulgaria, USA ’94 World Cup, UK and Eire Edition

Image
The 1994 FIFA World Cup in the USA was my introduction to football and, nearly thirty years later, probably the international tournament I remember most fondly despite the fact that I realistically don’t remember too much about it. I can attest to having witnessed Ray Houghton’s wonder goal/flukey lob in the Republic of Ireland’s shock victory over Italy as it was the centrepiece of a First Holy Communion celebration my family was attending. The joy and shock experienced by the predominantly Irish and Italian guests crowded around what seemed like the world’s biggest telly spilled over into the garden for all of us kids present and led to an inevitable kickabout. A few weeks later the quarter finals coincided with a primary school barbecue which, again, saw lots of people crowded around a telly watching Italy take on Spain . I remember very little about the game as my primary focus was the kickabout in the school playground and trying to digest ropey veggie burgers but one parent said
Read more

138: Gennaro Gattuso, Italy, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, England Collector Binder

Image
We are finally responding to a request from the excellent Anglo Italian Pod for a post on a member of Italy’s victorious 2006 World Cup squad. Mat Jolin-Beech may have already covered Francesco Totti and missed out on the opportunity to cover Alessandro Del Piero or Marco Materazzi but there were a host of exceptional footballers he could have chosen from their inspirational captain Fabio Cannavaro to the impossibly handsome Mauro Camoranesi. This blog being what it is though Mat has decided to focus on a loveable shithouse and his time in Scotland. We hope this does the trick lads. This is the first that may end up being a series of pieces from me with the theme “I forgot they played there” and the opening salvo in this possible theme is Gennaro Gattuso. The midfield hardman is synonymous with AC Milan where, in no particular order, he claimed two Champions League titles, the Coppa Italia, two Serie A winner’s medals, two Italian Super Cups, two UEFA Super Cups, and a FIFA Club
Read more