I am 53 years old and I am almost as young as Freddy Rincón. Even today, at this age, my mom always tells me: “Don’t look for a bad time, mijo. See that it is better to lose a minute in life than life in a minute”.
Those two sentences have been going around and around in my head for a week, when the terrible traffic accident that cost Rincón his life occurred.
It may interest you: (Freddy Rincón: they reveal their link with the women involved in the accident)
The death of the 55-year-old ex-soccer player is a crude, atrocious and brutal reality, and not only because it was the crash that it was, the impressive steel fiber player who with his gallop of fire burned the right wing of the Giuseppe Meazza stadium, in Milan, with his goal in extremis, in the last second of injury time for the 1-1 ‘victory’ over the Germans, the future world champions in Italy 90, almost 32 years ago.
The great goal against Germany
Rincón, in addition, today had a renewed media popularity among the fans who saw him play and those who were just beginning to know him due to his new status as a radio and TV commentator.
He said that that draw against the Germans was a real victory for football in a country where losing has always meant winning a little, and at that time it had been 28 years since he played in a World Cup.
To complete, his deep goal through the tunnel of goalkeeper Bodo Illgner’s legs was the liberating cry for this land bled at that time by drug trafficking bombs and attacks by guerrillas and paramilitaries.
It is not redundant to talk again today about Rincón’s soccer and physical qualities and characteristics, about his power, talent, intelligence and personality. What is your legacy? His two goals from him in the unforgettable 5-0 against Argentina? Being the first Colombian to play for Real Madrid? Lift the FIFA Club World Cup?
Do not. His legacy will be that unforgettable goal in the 90 World Cup in Italy, as is the legacy of Marcos Coll, his Olympic goal in ‘that other victory’, that 4-4, against the Soviet Union in Chile 1962.
His legacy will be that photo that José Clopatofsky took of him for EL TIEMPO, waving his fists at chest height while giving a huge howl of joy, while flying in the red sky shirt with yellow and blue wings. That image is already the heritage of national sport.
everyone’s cry
Everyone who saw it remembers how they experienced the exact moment. I am not the exception. That July 19, 1990 we watched the game on TV, at my house. The device was in my parents’ room. My dad and I followed him sitting on the bed, on the edge closest to the screen. My mother, lying down, followed the game in pieces from the bedside.
When the German Pierre Littbarski made it 1-0 in the 43rd minute of the second half, my dad, with his elbows on his legs, buried his head in his hands. My mother, then, said: “No, what nonsense: Colombia losing again. He’s always short five cents…”, and I left the room throwing bitter madrasas of frustration.
Just a couple of minutes passed. In the corridor outside the room, while cursing, I heard my dad give the alert, like the cry of a lookout discovering land: “There he goes, there he goes… he goes alone!” I immediately entered the room and, standing almost from the door, I saw Rincón take, perhaps, the last long stride and touch the ball that slid gently to the bottom of the goal.
“Goool, goool, goool! We all scream. My dad and I hugged very tight. And embraced we began to jump. I don’t know how or when, without letting go, we were jumping on the bed until… Prack! The bed broke! The boards, the mattress, the blankets and us, with my mother lying down, fell to the floor.
My dad and I were still hugging each other with happiness and we both had a lifetime to see the whole play over and over again, and to call the carpenter to repair the bed. My dad died last December, after 60 years of smoking. Last week Freddy Rincón died, when the truck in which he was going through the darkness of the early morning ran a red light and a bus collided with it violently.
And my mom, as if I were still the pelao from 32 years ago, still tells me: “Don’t look for a bad time, mijo. See that it is better to lose a minute in life than life in a minute…”.
It may interest you: (Freddy Rincón: the nightclub where he would have been before the accident)
MELUK TELLS HIM…
GABRIEL MELUK
Sports Editor
@MelukLeCuenta
#legacy #Freddy #Rincón #Meluk #tells #opinion