Jose Rene "El Loco" Higuita

It's hard to belive that if you are a football fan and you don't have to be a fanatic one, you don't know the Colombian goalkeeper, Jose Rene Higuita. The fans are usually recognize him because of his unusual looks, unusual performances on and off the pitch. The goalkeeper that scored so many goals in his career (44, 37 in penalties and 7 in free kicks), the goalkeeper that used to play also as a libero of his team, dribbling many times out of his 16-yard box, the goalkeeper that was in jail in 1993 and was suspended from the Ecuadorian league in 2004 due to positive drug test. This is the story of Rene Higuita.

 

 

Jose Rene Higuita Zapata was born on August 28 1966 in Medellin, Colombia. He was born to a single mother, Maria Dioselina Higuita and since he never knew his father, he took his mother's last name. Shortly after the birth his mother passed away and Higuita grew up with his grandmother, Ana Felisa. The economic situation was so bad until Higuita started to sell vegetables just to make money and to keep surviving.

Today Higuita is married to Magnolia and has two children: Andres and Pamela. Higuita also has a daughter, Cindy Carolina, from his first wife that passed away.

Higuita was discovered as a goalkeeper quite accidentally. He played as a striker in his school team and one time, when the scout of Independiente Medellin came to see young players, Higuita needed to replace the first goalkeeper that was injuried and the scout impressed by his goalkeeping skills.

 

 

Rene started his career in Atletico Nacional in 1981 and was a memeber of the U-16 Antioquia that was crowned as champions of Colombia. He was invited for the U-20 National Team that played in the 1985 South American championship in Paraguay and in the U-20 World Cup at the same year in USSR. He was loaned to Millonarios in 1985 and impressed the fans with his performances.

The coach of Nacional, Francisco Maturana, brought Higuita back to the team in 1986 and Higuita paid him back by being the main factor of some of Nacional's important wins. On May 31 1989, Atletico Nacional met Olimpia Asuncion from Paraguay in the Copa Libertadores final. after 2:2 on aggregate, the match had to be decided in penalties shoot-out. Rene was the hero of this day, when he scored one penalty and save four from Olimpia's players. Atletico Nacional became the first Colombian club to win the Libertadores.

 

In 1991 he made his first move to Europe. He joined to the Spanish club, Real Valladolid, when the coach was Francisco Maturana again, with his teammates Leonel Alvarez and Carlos Valderrama. After disappointed year of all the Colombians, Higuita returned back home to Nacional and won his first Colombian championship with the club in 1994. In 1995 another Libertadores campaign of Nacional almost ended with another title, but this time they lost in the final to the Brazilian club, Gremio, 4:2 on aggregate.

 

 

Before that, in the semi final vs. River Plate, scored Higuita a magnificent free kick goal and equalise the global score to 1:1, and later on saved the last penalty from River's player to give Nacional the ticket to the final.

 

Higuita joined in 1997 to the Mexican club, Veracruz, but once again returned to Colombia after one year and Join Independiente Medellin in 1999 and also play in Real Cartagena, Junior Barranquilla, Deportivo Pereira and Bajo del Cauca from the second division in Colombia. In 2004 he played in the Ecuadorian club, Aucas, but retired from football after he was found positive in a drug test and was suspended for six months.

In 2007 he decided to return to the game when he sign in the promoted Venezuelan club, Guaros de Lara and played there one year. In the first half of 2008 joined the second division Colombian club, Deportivo Rionegro, and led them to win the second division championship, which gave him a contract in the first team division with Deportivo Pereira at the age of 42, where he plays now and his future plans is to retire permanent at the age of 45. Higuita also participated in the farewell matches to the Paraguayan keeper, Jose Luis Chilavert, in 2004

and to the Argentine superstar, Diego Armando Maradona, where he made his famous "Scorpion save" and scored goal in penalty. Also was the goalkeepers coach of Ecuador for short time, when Hernan Dario Gomez was the head coach.

 

            

 

 

 

Higuita consider as one of the best goalkeepers of all times, some people say that he is the best of all, like former French star, Eric Cantona. Higuita, who didn't play in Europe as he deserved beside one year in Valladolid, made his world recognition in the uniforms of the Colombian national team, where he played in one World Cup tournament (1990) and five Copa America tournaments (1987, 1989, 1991, 1995, 1999). 

His first appearance in the national team was in the Copa of 1987 in Argentina, where Colombia showed great football and finished in third place, including 2:1 win over host Argentina. In the 1989 World Cup qualifiers Higuita was one of the main reasons that Colombia won Israel in the playoff matches 1:0 and qualified for the World Cup in Italy 1990. After winning UAE 2:0 and losing 1:0 to Yugoslavia (Higuita also saved penalty in this match), Colombia drew 1:1 vs. West germany to qualify for the second round vs. Cameroon. The 90 minutes ended in a 0:0 draw and both teams continue to extra time. Roger Milla, Cameroon's 38-year-old striker, scored first and Higuita decided to help his team to equalise. He started to dribble in the middle of the field when suddenly Milla stole the ball from him and kick the empty net, 2:0 Cameroon. Redin scored for Colombia but it was too late, Cameroon won 2:1 and eliminate Colombia.

 

Higuita highlight of his career though happened on September 6 1995 in a friendly match vs. England in Wembley. The game ended in a 0:0 draw, but every fan who was in the stadium that day didn't regret buying a ticket at all. They saw the best football trick of all times called the "Scorpion save". During the first half, kicked Jamie Redknapp to Higuita's goal, a ball which Higuita should have catch easily. Rene decided to surprise even his teammates. Suddenly he jumped forward and punch the ball with his heels!! Amazing play by Rene!!

 

                     

 

 After he missed the World Cup in 1994 because he was in jail, Rene returned to the National Team of coach Hernan Dario Gomez that prepered to the Copa America 1995. It was grea tto see Higuita plays again, show some new tricks in his repertuar. Colombia finished third in this tournament, beating Paraguay 5:4 in penalties shoot-out when Higuita saved the last penalty in the quarter-final and winning USA 4:1 in the 3rd place game, when Higuita kicked a wonderful free kick which hit the cross bar and Asprilla continued the rebound to score the third goal of Colombia.

Higuita's last invitation to the national team was in 1999 to the Copa America in Paraguay. The coach Javier Alvarez decided to invite 33-year-old keeper as a replacement to the first goalkkeper, Miguel Calero. Higuita played one game in the group stage, when Colombia won Ecuador 2:1. That was Higuita's last game in the national team, who finished a 12-years-career, 68 caps, received 54 goals and scored 3.

The english website, footy-boots.com, made a poll for the "best football trick" in the history on July 2008. 20% of them voted for Rene's scorpion vs. England, a play that was chosen ahead of players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Diego Maradona and Ronaldinho.

 

Higuita was involved in some scandals during his wild sporting career. In 1991, he was seen visit Pablo Escobar, the boss of Medellin drugs cartel, who was one of his friends.

On June 4 1993, He was arrested when he was transferred ransom money to release the kidnapped daughter of one of his friends. any connection to the kidnapp is forbidden by the Colombian law and Higuita was sentenced for 6 months in jail. This accident, of course, made him to miss the Copa America 1993, the qualification to the World Cup 1994 and the World Cup itself.

He was involved in a fight with the sport commentator, Cesar Augusto Londono, when he punched him in the eye after meeting him at the airport.

On November 23 2004, while playing in the Ecuadorian league, Higuita was found positive in a drug test and was suspended for six months by the Federation of Ecuador.

 

Higuita also participated in few reality shows in 2005. He participated in a show called "Cambio Extremo" when he had seven plastic surgeries in his face, cut off his long curly hair just because he wanted to host a TV show without "people need to turn off the TV" like Rene said.

He also participated with his teammates, Leonel Alvarez and Ricardo Perez, in reality called "La isla de los Famosos: Una Aventura Pirata" (something similar to Survivor) and the continuation series, "La Gran Apuesta".