Iván René Valenciano: scandals and anecdotes of the ‘Bombardero’ of the National Team

This Wednesday, it was learned that the former soccer player Iván René Valenciano was captured in the state of Florida, in the United States. The first versions suggest that the Barranquilla man was driving under the influence of alcohol.

According to the official police report, Iván René Valenciano is charged with first offense for alcohol or drugs, damage to property of another or a person, and reckless driving.

It may be of interest to you: Iván Rene Valenciano, in trouble: this was the controversial life of the former National Team player

Life in football

On the Colombian fields it was lethal: He scored 217 goals in the local League, of which he is the top scorer born on Colombian soil and the second in history. after Sergio Galván. Iván René Valenciano could have even gone further, but today he recognizes that he lacked discipline.

The Bomber is still very accurate, a few months ago he was at the microphones, as a panelist at the VBar, from Caracol Radio, and on ESPN. But also, his experience in the media has helped him give free rein to his anecdotes from his 20-year career, in Colombia, Italy, Mexico, Brazil and Ecuador. He retired in 2009, playing for Alianza Petrolera, in the B.

Like many footballers, Valenciano speaks more freely after having hung up his boots. But, in addition, it tells its story with the self-confidence typical of the Caribbean region. Thus, at 48 years old, Valenciano is a huge source of anecdotes.

Valenciano’s first game was in 1988, when he was just 16 years old. To play that game he had to borrow the guayos from his father, Ariel, champion forward with Junior in 1977 and 1980. But the first great anecdote of his career, in which he paid for all the hazing, occurred on the flight to Bogotá, where They were to play against Santa Fe. That day he scored his first goal.

Also: Iván René Valenciano, arrested in the United States for drunk driving

“We were going from Barranquilla to Bogotá on an Aces flight. I was sitting, and César Calero came and told me: ‘Pelaíto, go to the front where the curtain is, buy two hamburgers and two Coca-Colas. You want one?’. I told him of course. ‘Then go and order three.’ Here on this flight they do sell, on others they don’t. And I stand up, I draw the curtain and I go and ask for them. The girl barely looked at me and she told me that they didn’t sell that here.…”.

With Junior he was the top scorer in the championship in 1991, and that year he was called up to the Copa América by Luis Augusto García, but he was almost left out due to a recklessness in which Albeiro Usuriaga was also the protagonist.

“We were focused on Bogotá and there were two days left to get the final list. We were going for training and we started talking to Palomo. He told me: ‘In this National Team you and I have to be starters. This man has that group of old men, Iguarán and ‘Gambeta’ Estrada’. What he didn’t realize was that Chiqui was behind him. I just told him: ‘No, the teacher is the one who knows’, and he responded: ‘What’s wrong, that teacher doesn’t know anything!’. Chiqui realized everything. I barely told him that I hadn’t said anything, and he replied: ‘I’m not kicking them both out because I need them.’ But Palomo took it in the Cup,” he recalled.

Valenciano went to the U-23 National Team led by Hernán Darío Gómez and qualified for the 1992 Olympic Games. There, in Barcelona, ​​an anecdote occurred related to beer, which he was passionate about. Today he does not consume liquor.

“That was in the Olympic village, (Víctor) Pacheco and I were going. We went for a walk and entered a fast food restaurant. When we left there was a beer dispenser. We looked at each other, and Pacheco told me: ‘Come on, fat man, let’s get some cold ones in here, no one is going to notice.’”

Valenciano continues telling, amidst laughter: “Pacheco sat on one side of the dispenser and I sat on the other side. We had already had about 12 beers each when Pacheco told me: ‘Hey, fat man, aren’t you even dizzy?’ And I answer: ‘What I’m feeling is belly from so much beer.’ And then we said we would take the last two and leave. We said: ‘Let’s look at how many degrees of alcohol this beer has, you know that Águila has 4 percent.’ When we picked up the can, it said ‘non-alcoholic beer’. “We kicked the dispenser, we were drinking pure water.”

Valenciano was expelled in the first match of the Olympics, against Spain, and watched the match against Qatar from the outside. “I was kneeling on the bench. Suddenly I see that Bolillo puts in ‘Torito’ Ómar Cañas. Then he calls Elkin Sánchez and tells him, looking at the court: ‘Look, Elkin, look at Valenciano, this man is very fat!’ I was next to him! I barely told him: ‘Hey, teacher, I’m here!’ Bolillo confused Cañas with me. He called him to the line and told him: ‘Come out, let’s play with 10, you are very fat…’”.

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At Atalanta, where he was transferred after the Olympics, Valenciano found Marcello Lippi as coach, who in 2006 was world champion with Italy. And there he had problems with the language.

“One day Lippi calls me to come in, he gives me instructions and says: ‘Vos, capito’ (which I understood), and I say yes. We were losing 1-0 and in the end we lost 3-1. When I entered the dressing room, the man told me everything. I stood looking at him, and he told me to leave. I stayed there: I didn’t understand his instructions nor when he kicked me out. The next day he gave me the same instructions. He asked me again: ‘you, capito’. And I came back and said yes!”.

It was not the only anecdote from his time in Italy: “Atalanta just bought me, in the first training session they gave me a BMW. I had bought some Nike flip-flops, a pair of shorts, a T-shirt, an extra-flat Raymond Weil watch and a thick chain, and I put all that on to go to practice. I arrived at training with music by Tito Rojas. I saw that everyone was looking at me and I said it was because I was the new hire. The sports director, who was Claudio Gentile, spoke to me, but I didn’t understand him at all. Then, his assistant talks to Paolo Montero, and he translates for me: I should look at how my colleagues are dressed. When we finish training, everyone comes out in a jacket and tie. I left through another door, it made me sad.”

Atalanta had uniforms for every occasion. “There were suits for summer and winter, and they didn’t tell me anything. The winter one was a blue suit, light blue shirt, blue tie, belt and brown shoes. The summer one, gray suit, belt and black shoe. We were going to Milan: I showed up with gray pants, light blue shirt, blue jacket, black belt and brown shoes. When I got to the dining room, They all stared at me, and I told Paolo Montero that they all combined poorly. And he was the one who answered me that I was the one who combined wrongly. “They fined me a thousand dollars.”

Upon his return to Junior there was another story with Pacheco and beer. “I’m not going to say the technician. We were focused and after the games we had a beer. Normally we told the technician. One day the teacher comes in, he tells me that he wants a beer. We tell him: ‘Teacher, we’re not drinking.’ After half an hour, the same: he comes in, asks, we tell him the same thing. And he starts checking the room. And so on until midnight: there he told us to blow his eye. He felt our breath. There he asked where we were hiding it: we emptied the toilet tank, filled it with ice and there we had beer and whiskey. And then he asked us what we did with the cans: we put them in a black bag and tied it with a zip tie. The room faced the street, there we took them out the window.”

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