Freddy Eusebio Rincón Valencia (; 14 August 1966 – 13 April 2022) was a Colombian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

who played 84 games for the Colombia national team between 1990 and 2001. A versatile

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, he was capable of playing on the

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album '' Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * ...

, in the

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

or as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. At club level he played for Independiente Santa Fé,

América de Cali América de Cali S. A., best known as América de Cali or América, is a Colombian professional football club based in Cali. It competes in the Categoría Primera A, the top-flight league of Colombian football. The team plays its home games at ...

(Colombia),

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

(Italy),

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

(Spain),

Palmeiras Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (), commonly known as Palmeiras, is a Brazilian professional football club based in the city of São Paulo, in the district of Perdizes. Palmeiras is one of the most popular clubs in South America, with around ...

, Santos, and

Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians ( grc, Α΄ ᾽Επιστολὴ πρὸς Κορινθίους) is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author ...

(Brazil).

Club career

Rincón began his professional career at Independiente Santa Fé in 1986, winning the

Copa Colombia The Copa Colombia ( en, Colombia Cup, link=yes); officially known as Copa BetPlay Dimayor is an annual football tournament in Colombia. It is contested by the 36 professional clubs of DIMAYOR and is the nation's domestic cup competition, equiva ...

in 1989 with the capital club, as well as gaining national acclaim for his performances. With

he won the Colombian Championship in 1990 and 1992. It was his performances at the 1994 World Cup that prompted

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to sign the Colombian midfielder. However the three foreigner rule meant he was loaned out to

, and was eventually sold onto

for the 1995-96 season. Rincón spent the latter part of his career playing club football in Brazil where he played for

, Santos and Cruzeiro. During his time with Corinthians the club won the

Brazilian championship Brazilian commonly refers to: * Something of, from or relating to Brazil * Brazilian Portuguese, the dialect of the Portuguese language used mostly in Brazil * Brazilians, the people (citizens) of Brazil, or of Brazilian descent Brazilian may al ...

in 1998 and 1999 and the first

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...

in 2000, his greatest title.

International career

Rincón scored 17 goals in 84 caps for the Colombia national team, playing in the

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicis ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

, and 1998 World Cups. His most memorable goal is the one he scored against

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, Italy on 19 June during the 1990 World Cup. Playing into injury time, Colombia needed a goal to draw the game and avoid elimination from the tournament at the group stages. When played through by a pass from Carlos Valderrama, Rincon held his nerve and calmly fired the ball through the legs of Bodo Illgner to secure the draw his team needed. During a qualifying match for the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

on 5 September 1993 against

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

, he scored the first goal of the game receiving the ball from teammate

Carlos Valderrama Carlos Alberto Valderrama Palacio (Colombian Spanish: ; born 2 September 1961), also known as ''El Pibe'' ("The Kid"), is a Colombian former professional footballer and sports commentator for Fútbol de Primera, who played as an attacking mid ...

and passing the Argentine goalkeeper,

Sergio Goycochea Sergio Javier Goycochea (; born 17 October 1963) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is best known for helping his country reach the 1990 FIFA World Cup Final with his penalty kick saves. Career Goyco ...

, before scoring the third goal in a 5–0 victory that secured Colombia's place at the World Cup.

Coaching career

In 2005, Rincón started a football manager career, after he was hired as Iraty manager for the 2006 season. On 27 September 2006, Rincón was hired as São Bento's manager. He was the coach of

São José Esporte Clube São José Esporte Clube, more commonly referred to as São José, is a Brazilian football club based in São José dos Campos, São Paulo. The team compete in Campeonato Paulista Série A3, the third tier of the São Paulo state football le ...

of São José dos Campos, São Paulo. He was hired as Corinthians youth team head coach in 2009.

Personal life

Rincón had been a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

since 20 August 2005. He was baptized in São Paulo Perdizes Stake in Brazil. In 2007, Rincón came under criminal investigation in Colombia and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

, facing charges of collaboration with cocaine kingpin Pablo Rayo Montaño and suspicion of money laundering. On 10 May, São Paulo police took him into custody after a Panamanian request for extradition. In August 2013, Rincón suffered multiple injuries in a car accident in his native Valle del Cauca, where he underwent surgery at a local hospital. Rincón's son is professional footballer Sebastián Rincón, who currently plays for

Barracas Central Club Atlético Barracas Central is an Argentine football club from the district of Barracas, Buenos Aires. Established in 1904, Barracas Central will return to the Primera División, the top level of the Argentine football league system, in the 2 ...

in Argentina.

Death

On 11 April 2022, Rincón was hospitalized with critical head injuries after the car he was driving collided with a bus in the Colombian city of

Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,227,642 residents according to the 2018 census. The city spans with of urban area, making Cali the second ...

. Four of his passengers and the bus driver were also injured. He died two days later.

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list Colombia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Rincón goal.''

Honours

Independiente Santa Fe *

: 1989 América de Cali *

Categoría Primera A The Categoría Primera A (), commonly referred to as Liga BetPlay Dimayor (between 2015 and 2019 ''Liga Águila'') due to sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is a Colombian professional league for association football clubs. It is th ...

: 1990, 1992 Palmeiras *

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (; English: "Brazilian Championship A Series"), commonly referred to as the Brasileirão (; English: "Big Brazilian"), and also known as Brasileirão Assaí due to sponsorship with Assaí Atacadista, is a Br ...

Campeonato Paulista The Campeonato Paulista Série A1, commonly known as Campeonato Paulista, nicknamed Paulistão, is the top-flight professional football league in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. Run by the FPF, the league is contested between 16 clubs and t ...

Corinthians * Brasileirão:

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

*FIFA Club World Cup:

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

Colombia *

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

third place:

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

Individual * Bola de Prata: 1999

References

External links

* *
International statistics
at

rsssf The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

Futbol Factory profile

What happened to Freddy Rincon?
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rincon, Freddy 1966 births 2022 deaths People from Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca Converts to Mormonism Colombian Latter Day Saints Colombian footballers Association football midfielders Colombia international footballers Categoría Primera A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players La Liga players Serie A players 1990 FIFA World Cup players 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 1991 Copa América players 1993 Copa América players 1995 Copa América players Colombian football managers Independiente Santa Fe footballers América de Cali footballers Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras players S.S.C. Napoli players Real Madrid CF players Sport Club Corinthians Paulista players Santos FC players Cruzeiro Esporte Clube players Iraty Sport Club managers Esporte Clube São Bento managers São José Esporte Clube managers Colombian people of African descent Colombian expatriate footballers Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Expatriate footballers in Brazil Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Italy Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Spain Road incident deaths in Colombia Sportspeople from Valle del Cauca Department