The acts of racism that Freddy Rincón was the victim of after his signing for Real Madrid

The mourning for the death of Freddy Rincón in Colombia and the world continues to bring to light special memories of the footballer, who was filled with stories throughout his 55 years and his time with important national and international teams. Unfortunately, not all stories are positive: it has also been recalled that, like many other Afro-Colombians, 'The Colossus of Bonaventura' suffered racist attacks.

One of the moments that Rincón marked forever in the history of national footballers was his signing for Real Madrid, as he became the first Colombian to wear the shirt of the European team and, likewise, the first to be in the Champions League. It was in the 1995/96 season that the Colombians were thrilled with the arrival of the Buenos Aires to European football. However, his time at the 'merengue' did not turn out to be what was expected, the athlete was only in 21 games and scored a goal. Rincón's passage at Real Madrid was shorter than planned, as it did not reach the level he had previously demonstrated and the racist insults by the European fans did not alleviate the situation.

It should be remembered that Freddy Rincón excelled in national football and, especially, when he was in the 1990 World Cup with the Tricolor and scored the legendary goal against Germany. After this, the Colombian positioned his career in Brazilian football, mainly being part of the members of Palmeiras and Corinthians. His talent took him to Italy, where he played for Napoli in Italy, and from there he jumped to one of the most important clubs in Spain, Real Madrid.

Many factors could have influenced that the talent that had caught the attention of Real Madrid for 'El Colosso' was not seen when he was wearing his shirt, and one of them was the rejection by the fans of the 'merengue' after his arrival, all because of his skin color and his country of origin.

When Rincón was signed for the European team, in Madrid, the walls of the Santiago Bernabeu stadium were filled with graffiti in which the xenophobic ideas of the fans were highlighted and, at the same time, the rejection of Jorge Valdano, Real Madrid coach at that time, for only bringing 'sweatshirts' to the club.

At that time newspapers such as El País de España or Diario AS showed in their publications the phrases that fans had written. “Go back to the jungle”, “get out of here, we don't want you”, “we're going to kill you”, “the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) is looking for you”, “you're an easy target”, were some of the messages addressed to the Colombian at that time.

Rincón referred to these events in an interview with Marca, emphasizing that he lived a very sad time in the European team:

In addition to the insults of the European team's supporters, the directors were also against the decision of the Argentine coach and influenced the Colombian not being able to prove his courage on the courts. This was pointed out by Freddy Rincón himself in an interview with CNN en Español in 2017, in which he was asked why his time at Real Madrid hadn't worked.

“Real Madrid is a difficult team, the name says it 'royalty', there are many interests and many people behind what the team is. Unfortunately, the only black man on the team was me and the one who was vice president at that time, Lorenzo Sanz, said that when he was president the first player he would take out would be me, he used him as a campaign to become president of Real Madrid. I was deprived of the opportunity to play football and, until now, I don't know why, because I only know how to play football,” said the athlete who passed away on April 13.

Valdano tried to defend his decision and take care of Rincón, several times he referred to the statements of the followers as a “disgusting ideology”, but the Argentine was also tied by his hands and could not influence the decisions. Finally, Valdano was fired from Real Madrid and a short time later the Colombian came out as well.

Rincón concluded in that interview that “I lacked being white. I didn't suffer from racism every day, but to play for Real Madrid, yes.”

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