The former Colombia national team captain Freddy Rincon has died aged 55, the Federation of Colombian Football (FCF) have confirmed.
A midfielder who played in his home nation, in Brazil and briefly in Europe for both Napoli and Real Madrid, Rincon was an iconic figure for a generation of Colombian fans and featured in the same squad as the likes of Carlos Valderrama, Faustino Asprilla, Oscar Cordoba and Wilmer Cabrera, eventually earning 84 caps at senior level.
Rincon was involved in a vehicle collision three days ago and was hospitalised with serious head injuries after the car he was driving collided with a bus in Cali.
The FCF said he was a “big loss for our sport” and that Colombia would “miss him and remember him with great affection, appreciation, respect and admiration.
“We send strength, support and our condolences to his family, hoping they can bear this sad and painful loss.”
Rincon was at three World Cup finals for Colombia, playing 10 times across Italia ‘90, USA ‘94 and France ‘98. At the first he scored one of the nation’s most memorable goals of all time on the biggest stage, netting late on against West Germany at the end of a scintillating passing move.
At club level, he was the first Colombian to play a competitive game for Real Madrid - not counting Alfredo Di Stefano, who represented the nation for four unofficial games but held neither passport nor birthright to the country, with the fixtures not recognised by Fifa.
Following his short time with Real, Rincon returned to Brazil with Corinthians, where he took them to glory in the 2000 Fifa Club World Championship - the competition which has since become the Club World Cup.
He retired in 2004 having represented eight different clubs - with two spells at both Corinthians and Palmeiras - and having scored 17 goals for Colombia, the last of which came in 1998 against Scotland, in a friendly held in the USA.
