The story of the legendary ball with which Freddy Rincón scored 1-1 against Germany and that is in Armenia

“Great goal from Freddy Rincón, that's why God is Colombian. That's why these things happen, because God is Colombian,” Edgar Perea narrated on June 19, 1990, when the last play of the game was running and Carlos Valderrama put that pass that broke the German defense, in the best style of that Barcelona of 'Pep' Guardiola, which left Freddy Eusebio Rincón Valencia face to face with Bodo Illgner, defining between the legs of this one.

After the impact, it took forever for the ball to enter the goal, as if asking for permission; but once in the back of the net, the eleven players and an entire country had no choice but to celebrate. It didn't matter that it was Tuesday, let alone the critical violence that took place in the streets; a joy for that people was more than necessary and that leather, struck by the Colossus of Buenaventura, brought Colombia together in a single cry, the same one that that iconic narrator released. With his lungs and heart in his hand.

When Pierre Libartski opened the score of the match for Federal Germany, Pacho Maturana ordered Rubén Darío Hernandez and Arnoldo Iguarán, both strikers, to warm up. He burned his last rounds, but while they were close to the corner kick pennant doing their pre-competitive exercises, since Guiseppe Meazza has no athletic track, the miracle happened at the feet of a vallecaucano.

The anger and helplessness took hold of the German goalkeeper who was playing at the Köln at that time, to the point that he kicked the ball (yes, the same one that slipped between his legs), crashing into the mesh and bouncing very close to where Hernandez was, who grabbed him and sat with him. After the jubilation, they resumed the encounter with another ball. The one that Rubén Darío had was already historic.

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No one remembered the Etrusko Unico more than the striker who passed through Independiente Medellín, Once Caldas, Atlético Nacional and other teams in the local league; but in the dressing room Rincón asked him to do so. Rubén Darío, no fool, did not want to give it to him, and when they arrived in the country, he asked his father to keep it as if it were the very World Cup, the one that Germany won.

That ball was stored until Don Ramón Hernández himself handed it back to him, and he knew that the ball was so important that he couldn't keep it in a closed space, without anyone watching it. He had to put it somewhere else, so he donated it to a museum in the Milagro City of Colombia.

The Quindiano Sports Museum has the fortune of safeguarding the blessed leather, the one that passed through the feet of Blessed Fajardo for El Pibe Valderrama, this one for Freddy Rincón; Rincón para el Pibe and filtering it so that the Buenos Averense came face to face with the European goalkeeper.

Did Freddy Eusebio claim the ball afterwards? Indeed, he did, but at that time he did not want to keep it but returned it to his former selection partner to hand it over to the museum as a historical piece. He passed through Rincón's feet, through Illgner's legs and gently touched the net of the mythical Meazza. What other ball had a similar course? None, only that Etrusko who, living up to his name, is Unique.

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