Colombia mourns the departure of Freddy Rincón, the footballer who shouted a country in unison

The Colossus of Bonaventure said goodbye. Vallecaucano footballer Fredy Rincón, one of the stars of the golden generation of national football, suffered a traffic accident in the early hours of Monday, April 11 in Cali. His prognosis was reserved, he was urgently operated on at the Imbanaco Clinic, where several of his family, friends, and followers waited with faith for his recovery.

From a children's team called El Capricho, Rincón became part of Atlético Buenaventura in the city that had seen him grow up for 19 years. It was at that age that he arrived in Bogotá, where he had been invited by Jorge Luis Pinto to be part of the lower ones of Santa Fe.

With Atlético Bucaramanga they played a friendly match and that was enough for the manager to give him the opportunity to be part of one of the capital's teams. There it stood out as a mixed flyer and even some, from nostalgia or data, considered it the best that ever existed in the country.

He spent three years with the cardinal team as part of the team that won the first Colombian Cup for that team in 1989. The previous years were also highlighted for Rincón, he was polished in that step with Pinto's direction and played for the title in 1988.

He then became part of the América de Cali, where he opened his place in a team full of national football stars and was champion in 1990 and 1992. A role that allowed him to later reach Palmeiras in Brazil and then to Napoli where he was from 1994-1995.

After his first experience in Europe, he was ready to return to Brazil, but he got an unparalleled opportunity. He was already recognized among the clubs for his role in Uruguay's Copa America in which he scored three goals.

For that reason, in the midst of a Real Madrid crisis, Jorge Valdano proposed that he be part of the meringues for the season. He was received with discriminatory messages by the fans, but he was willing to compete with the substitutes to leave the bank.

He became the first Colombian in a Champion League with a few minutes on the court of the merengue club, with no other remarkable result, so he returned soon after to Brazilian football. To be part of the Corinthians in 1997.

In three years in Brazil, he won two national championships in 1998 and 1999. Thanks to that result, Corinthians went to the 2000 Club World Cup, which finally won the penalties with Vasco de Gamma. Rincón was the captain and raised the historic cup.

With the Colombia team he was part of three world championships, in 1990 in which the national team reached the round of 16. Followed by 1994 and 1998 in which they did not pass the group stage, although in the fanatical memory the luxury roster that had been formed by then is not forgotten.

The Colombian Football Federation recalls among its ephemeris that on May 23, 1988, in a friendly match between Colombia and Scotland played in New York, Freddy Rincón scored the last goal as the national team's starter. On that occasion, Carlos Valderrama also scored the second goal of a match that ended in a draw.

Rincón, like multiple sportsmen of the late twentieth century, ended up dotted with drug trafficking, apparently out of sheer suspicion. In 2006, the Brazilian Public Prosecutor's Office captured Colombian kingpin Pablo Rayo Montaño, in an investigation against drug-related money laundering and other illicit activities.

A total of 96 people were linked, including the Colossus of Bonaventure, as the supposed front man of Rayo Montaño. The case was not resolved until 2016 when the Supreme Court of Justice acquitted the footballer and condemned the capo.

In recent years, Rincón has been a football commentator and has been involved in controversial analyses of the situation of national sports.

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