A fluffy hair like Jin Yong's Golden Retriever King, a wild way of playing, from the untamed style of South American players, this is the madman Iquita. It's hard to see passionate and happy football in Europe today (except perhaps Sterling), but in those days, fans had the privilege of seeing a unique Iquita. As a goalkeeper, he has a wide range of activities, and Neuer looks very conservative in front of it. Iquita will often come to the outside of the box to control the ball, actively participate in organizing the attack, don't think that his way of attacking is to open the foot, that would be wrong, Iquita can play with his teammates to control the pass, and take high-quality free kicks. Although there is a fire-playing nature flowing in the bones, it is indeed the embodiment of the unrestrained football of that era, in fact, the older generation of fans who fell in love with football is not exactly the enthusiastic blood flowing in the eighties and nineties? Today we return to the purest happy football together. Get to know the goalkeeper who claims to be a madman. René Iquita.
In fact, old fans familiar with South American football should have heard of the three crazy goalkeepers, crazy Iquita, Lavette, and flower butterfly Campos. Among them, Iquita is the most eye-catching, which is not only due to his offensive skills, but also to his confidence and full of performance desire. In the time when Colombia D was raging, it was Iquita's "magic" that brought fans back to the football field and regained the beauty of football.
Born in 1966 in a slum in Medellin, Colombia, Iquita's father loved football, so Iquita was exposed to football and loved it from an early age. At first, Iquita's position was as a striker, but due to his technical embarrassment, he slowly lost his position, and later by chance he made a cameo appearance as a goalkeeper and performed very well. Encouraged by his coach, Iquita became a goalkeeper. But he still retains the technique and footwork of a striker, and perhaps he is not outstanding in the forward, but he is the best "striker" in the goalkeeper position! Iquita has always maintained a forward's heart, often rushing out of his own box, running to the opponent's half to participate in the attack and even the goal, so the fans directly nicknamed him "Crazy", of course, some fans called him "Crazy".
Iquita made his football debut at National Athletic medellín, when the owner of the team was Escobar, the famous Colombian drug lord, and the National Athletic team was actually a tool of his Xi money. In a sense, Escobar is also a benefactor of Colombia's slums, building soccer fields for Medellín's children, organizing leagues, and training many players to enter the National Athletics team, including Iquita. Sometimes we can't help but sigh that countries with a good football atmosphere, even drug lords, are really helping national football and loving football. Doing the right thing.
And Iquita's crazy on the field naturally has his underpinnings, that is, Escobar.
In the 1989 "Drug Lord Derby" between National Athletic and Cali Americas, a goal of National Athletic was blown off by the current referee Ortega, and finally National Athletic lost, which annoyed Escobar, and after the game, Ortega was killed by two killers on the way to the hotel, and the Colombian league referee once became a high-risk profession. Especially the team's toxic owl background. And Iquita and Escobar have a good relationship. As early as 1987, Iquita was selected for the Colombian national team and became a "free man" on the field, organizing attacks, breaking through with the ball, and taking set pieces.
In 1989, national athletics in South America was in the limelight, winning the South American Libertadores Cup, and then the Toyota Cup National Athletics forced the European giants AC Milan into a desperate situation, Iquita was quite active in the game, even dared to play the ball past Van Basten, Iquita was remembered by fans all over the world. In the 1990 World Cup, Colombia and Yugoslavia, West Germany and the United Arab Emirates were in one group. After the team defeated the United Arab Emirates, Iquita began to "float", facing the Yugoslav Iquita repeatedly showed off, but Jokic (not the current basketball teacher) headed the ball to break his goal, Colombia had to fight with West Germany in the final round. Iquita "performed" in front of Klinsmann and other players, and was almost shot by Mateus from a distance, and finally drew 1-1 with West Germany.
1/8 final against Cameroon, Colombia thought that there was a royal gift package, the first group he met was actually the African Lions, the two teams exchanged white rolls in 90 minutes, Uncle Mira stood up in the extra time to break the deadlock in the 106 minutes, after which Iquita could no longer stand the small universe in his heart, opened the crazy mode, he rushed out of the box to organize the attack, Uncle Mila came forward to break the ball, Iquita was ready to pull the ball over, not to think that this bad uncle who did not play according to common sense broke the ball at Iquita's feet, Then the empty goal was won, and Iquita completely became a global fire and became famous. The negative teaching material of playing with flowers and eating bitter fruits has thus been on the board of various goalkeeper coaches.
Colombia was knocked unconscious by the gift bag! After the World Cup, Iquita became the laughing stock of the country. In Colombia, a country where crime and drugs are rampant, gambling during the World Cup is prevalent, and many fans have placed their bets on Colombia, if it were not for his background (that is, Escobar's guarantee, to know that Escobar at that time covered 80% of the world's coco, but also dared to hijack the Navy Skylark helicopter), the match with Cameroon alone is enough to make him return to China and die. However, Iquita, who is not generally strong in his heart, did not relent, he laughed at the ridicule of the fans and continued his madness on the field. In 1991, when the situation in Colombia changed, Escobar was admitted to a luxury prison, when Iquita and Valderrama left Colombia to join La Liga side Valladolid. In July 1992, Escobar escaped from prison and Iquita returned to Colombia, and the relationship between the two people need not be made clear.
After his release from prison, Escobar kidnapped the daughter of another drug lord, Molina, and Iquita acted as an intermediary to accompany the negotiations with his relationship with Escobar, and eventually Molina spent $300,000 to redeem the girl. Iquita's seemingly well-intentioned move broke Colombian law, and the court accused Iquita of profiting from it, and Iquita had to be investigated by the police and imprisoned for 7 months, thus missing the 1994 World Cup. When Escobar was shot dead by the police in 1993, that crazy period came to an end, and National Athletics went mediocre, but the mediocrity did not include the madman Iquita.
After the 1994 World Cup, Iquita's good friend Andre Escobar was killed after returning home after he scored the oolong ball, and Iquita and Valderrama announced their withdrawal from the national team in protest.
It was not until 1995 that Iquita returned to the national team. And this time, after returning to the national team, Iquita once again contributed a masterpiece. It was in the friendly match with England in 1995, at Wembley Stadium in London, the little Redknapp hoisted, the ball flew to the goal and was about to cross Iquita into the net, at this moment, Iquita jumped in front of many fans and kicked the purple crown and kicked his feet in the air, and staged a scorpion swing to shoot the ball out, letting the world see how crazy crazy people really are, and how magical South American magic football really is.
Although some people later said that Iquita said that it was the referee who blew the whistle to make that action improvised, but being able to make this action in an instant had little to do with whether the goal was scored, after all, such a move is not something that anyone can do, and Scolari was almost seriously injured in an imitation.
In 1997, Iquita left the national athletics for ten years and joined the Mexican team Villa cruz, where Iquita put away his desire to perform, and became a "full-time" goalkeeper, conscientiously guarding the gate, at most, it is now Neuer, in no crazy move, the 1998 World Cup Iquita was not selected for the national team, and this generation of crazy goalkeepers was gradually forgotten. In the years since, he has wandered many teams, and there is no outstanding performance. And then there was not even a sponsor, Iquita attributed everything to his ugly looks, not only said that he also carried other Colombian teammates, he thought that many of them were too low-looking, Valderama, Alvarez, Asprira, one uglier than one (later out of J Ronaldo), so after retiring Iquita chose plastic surgery, but the effect, it felt like a shaved beard.
After that, Iquita was active on the court until 2009, when he won the FIFA Golden Foot Award, and then retired again, after retiring, relying on his fame to participate in charity games or perform, performing his scorpion tail. Iquita has also become a legend in Colombia along with Valderrama, and when it comes to Colombian football, people naturally think of the crazy goalkeeper, and Iquita has become a figure imitated by many fans. In 2018, he became the goalkeeper coach of the National Athletics, and it is interesting that in the warm-up game in the United States, the American fans provoked Iquita, who was over 50 years old in the stands, directly punched out a downward punch, and the fans did not react to it, which shows that Iquita's skills after retirement are not wasted.
Maybe you ask the current fans whose scorpion tail swing is the most classic, and many people may say van der Vaart, Ibrahimovic, or even Olivier Giroud. But you have to ask the old fans around you, and they will tell you about Iquita. They will also shake their heads when you mention modern European football, lament that the scenery of football in the past is no longer there, don't be surprised, if you have seen the South American football of that era, you will also be attracted by the enthusiastic and wild world of football, that is not the joy that utilitarian football can bring now.
Football sometimes needs some "crazy people"!