Before we introduced two of the three mad goalkeepers in South America, the vicious dog Chilawite and the flower butterfly Campos, today we will introduce the last one, that is, the madman Iquita from Colombia. It is the bearded Messi fan, he is also the idol of Wang Dalei, is not like a rock star, people were the heroes of South American football and Colombian black and white. He and Baldrama, two legendary Colombian players, have become the labels of Colombian football.
Born in August 1966 in the medellin slums of Colombia, Iquita is a pure ground snake who has loved to play football since childhood, but unexpectedly became a goalkeeper, with excellent physical fitness, quick reflexes, and good technique and footwork. He debuted in Colombia in 1986 at the famous National Athletic medellín, and the boss behind the National Athletic at that time was the famous drug lord Escobar, and the National Athletic team was his tool for money laundering. Escobar loves football and is the benefactor of the colombian Medellín slum players, he builds stadiums for Medellín's children, organizes regular youth leagues, trains many players to join the Medellín National Athletic Team, and invites his favorite players to visit his farm, Iquita is one of them.
The reason why Iquita can play so brazenly in Colombia is that he has his back to the mountains. In 1989, during a drug-monger derby between Medellín National Athletic and Cali América, a goal from National Athletic was blown off by referee Álvaro Ortega, eventually leading to a loss, and Escobar was furious after the game, and the on-duty referee Ortega was shot by two killers on the way to the hotel. Since then, Colombian league refereeing has become a high-risk profession, especially for teams with drug lord backgrounds. Iquita and Escobar maintain a good relationship, so he was selected for the Colombian national team just after his debut in 1987, and he can also become a free agent goalkeeper on the field, breaking through with the ball, taking the set-piece, Neuer's kind of goalkeeper is definitely a child compared to Iquita.
In 1989, Medellín National Athletic was invincible in South America and won the Copa Libertadores, which was also the result of the boss who was in the sky at that time. In the toyota cup that followed, Medellín National Athletics almost turned milan, which was invincible in Europe, such as a desperate situation, Iquita was active, and even dared to pass Van Basten in the game, but in the end, Iquita's goal was broken by Evani's free kick, and Iquita was known all over the world.
But as the saying goes, good things don't go out, bad things spread far and wide, and Iquita is really familiar to fans all over the world, that is, in the 1990 World Cup. That year Colombia and West Germany, Yugoslavia and the United Arab Emirates were divided into groups. After the victory over the United Arab Emirates, Iquita began to get away with it, showing off his skills in front of yugoslav god pantsev and other killers, but Yugoslav midfielder Jokic broke his goal with a header. In the final round of life and death against the West German team, Iquita played a big knife in front of Klinsmann and others, and was almost attacked by Mateus's long-distance hanging door, and the final match ended 1-1, and the two teams joined hands to qualify from the group.
In the quarter-finals of Colombia against Cameroon, Colombia originally thought it was pie in the sky, and the first place in the group was the African lion. African lions and mountain lions 90 minutes to exchange white rolls, overtime, Cameroon god Uncle Mira debuted, he took the lead in 106 minutes to break the deadlock, after conceding the goal, Iquita Annaa could not stop, opened the madman mode, rushed out of the box to prepare to organize the attack, the result was Uncle Mira to kill to break the ball, Iquita was ready to pull the ball over, did not expect the 38-year-old Uncle Mira to be fast-eyed, after the break of the ball to play empty goal, this goal also made Iquita famous in world football, became a classic teaching material for playing fire on the court. The sneaker iquita used that year was the adidas 90 World Cup etrusco, which had three lion's head motifs on the tongue, the same as the World Cup ball. The Colombian No. 2 defender in the image below is none other of his teammates at Medellín National Athletic, the other globally renowned André. Escobar.
After the World Cup, Iquita returned home to become the laughing stock of the fans, but he still ignored it and continued his crazy football. In 1991, the situation in Colombia underwent a major change, and the gambling king Escobar accepted the government's edict and put himself in a luxurious prison. Iquita and Valderrama also left Colombia at the same time to join Valladolid in La Liga, but Valladolid was relegated at the end of the season in second-to-last. So in July 1992, after Escobar's successful escape from prison, Iquita returned to Colombia, I don't know if it was a coincidence.
In 1993, the escaped drug king Escobar began to stir up trouble again, and his men kidnapped another drug lord, Carlos. Molina's daughter, the righteous Iquita, acted as an intermediary, and Iquita used her relationship with Escobar to accompany the kidnapped girl's father to negotiate, and finally spent $300,000 to rescue the girl. Although this move seems chivalrous to us, it violated Colombia's anti-kidnapping laws, and the court also accused him of profiting in the kidnapping intermediary, which also led to Iquita being investigated by the police and imprisoned for seven months, so he missed the 1994 World Cup in the United States. In late 1993, Escobar was shot dead by Colombian police. An era of madness came to an end, and the Medellín National Athletic team fell into mediocrity, but Iquita was not mediocre at all.
After the 1994 World Cup, Iquita's teammate and friend, another Andrea. Escobar was shot dead after returning home, and the Iquita and Baldrama announced their withdrawal from the national team in protest. It wasn't until 1995 that he returned to the national team, and after returning to the national team, he shocked the world again, and in a friendly match with England at Wembley Stadium in September 1995, Iquita blocked the Hanging Goal of the England player with a dragon swinging tail. The move has since become Iquita's label, when he used reebok's integrity soccer boots.
In 1997, Iquita left the Medellín National Athletic team for 10 years to play for Villa Cruz in Mexico. In Mexico, he worked hard to keep the goal, almost like Neuer as a goalkeeper, not as crazy as before. He was not selected for the national team again for the 1998 World Cup, and gradually, the madman goalkeeper Iquita began to be forgotten.
In the years that followed, he traveled to many clubs in the Americas, but he did not perform brilliantly, and later in his career, the famous Iquita did not even have a sponsor, and the sneakers he wore were actually blacked f50 football shoes. After summarizing, he found that it was because he was too ugly, and said that most of the players of the Colombian football team were too low in appearance, such as Valderrama, Alvarez, Asprila, all of whom were ugly, so the players could not become popular idols, if ranked according to appearance, Colombia may be the bottom of the world. So after retiring for the first time in 2005, Iquita chose plastic surgery, but I think the effect is average, because the foundation is so poor, the whole thing feels like just shaving, or so ugly.
In the following years, although it disappeared, Iquita did not retire. It was not until he won the FIFA GoldFare Award in 2009 that Iquita officially retired for the second time and held a grand ceremony. After retiring from the army, Iquita also relied on his fame to go around participating in various charity competitions, and whether to perform the famous stunt Dragon Swing Tail Save.
In 2018, Iquita became the goalkeeping coach of Medellín National Athletic, and during a warm-up match in the United States, he was provoked by a Colombian fan who may have been referring to the allusion to his self-immolation in the '90s. Poking at the madman's sadness, Iquita, who was in his early 50s, actually jumped up and gave the fan a punch, which was indeed not lost that year.