Freddy Rincón: with burial in Cali they give the final farewell to the Colossus of Buenaventura

At about 5:50pm, the family, friends and followers of former football player Freddy Eusebio Rincón Valencia gave the final farewell to the figure of the Colombian national team in the 90s and idol of national football, who died on the night of Wednesday, April 13 at the Imbanaco Clinic in Cali.

From the Camposanto Metropolitano del Sur, a crowd gathered for the burial of the former player honored him by wrapping his coffin with a commemorative ribbon, a flag of Colombia and a flag of America de Cali, a club in which he played in the Colombian Pacific, region where Rincón was born and emerged as a professional.

With the D1324 plaque that places it in the southern cemetery of the capital of Vallecaucana, the members of the funeral home and local workers used as a reference point two blue tents on a perimeter fenced by the National Police and with controlled capacity for their closest ones.

The last farewell of the former Colombian team striker was still symbolic and nostalgic and was attended by one of his former football teammates, René Higuita, who greeted his sons Sebastián and Steven, before looking for the last time at the coffin that will lie forever on the lands of the department of Valle del Cauca.

After several minutes of commemorative silence and with the salsa songs in the background that most excited Rincón, the former player's closest mourners, former coach and former sports commentator continued to pay tribute before leaving home on the penultimate day of Easter in 2022.

From 10 a.m. that Freddy's body was in the Pascual Guerrero Olympic Stadium, until 6 p.m. when they took him to his final destination, the football fan and the people who knew him did not stop cheering with flags, songs, whistles and t-shirts of the remembered Colossus of Bonaventura, a phenomenon that even joined the bars of the two local teams (América and Cali), prior to the vallecaucano classic of this Sunday, April 17, 2022, in honor of their memory and sporting legacy.

Two coaches who were of vital importance in Freddy's career, said goodbye to him with tears and thanks.

The Santander technical director, Jorge Luis Pinto, who gave him the opportunity to make his professional debut at Independiente Santa Fe for the 1986 season, was quite hurt by the news of the death of one of his “sons”, as he called him; while Francisco Pacho Maturana, who directed him in the Colombia national team between 1990 and 1994, stressed that it was devastating to hear the news about his departure, but that his farewell is medicine for the soul, after so many joys that he made the Colombian people feel.

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Between tears and too much nostalgia, these were the final words of Jorge Luis Pinto, dedicated especially to the children of the former player so that they “fight, as Freddy fought”:

On the other hand, his senior coach, Pacho Maturana, highlighted that he saw a message coming from Spain, where they claim that Freddy Rincón is a national and world heritage, so he hopes that Colombia will never forget what he means to Colombia and Planet Earth:

“He comes to the team and it's a light that shines a lot but doesn't dull any of them, because it wasn't that style, it makes them better and they make Freddy better. That group of players becomes a team and from the codes and principles of life they become a family, and that is what we are today. That is why from the courage, from the strength expressed by Freddy, it has infected us for this moment that we need to be strong. In that family there are codes that make a difference, there is a family that has been united and then it pays to be united.”

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