April 14, (THEWILL) – Freddy Rincon, a former Colombian football star, has died as a result of severe brain injury sustained in a car accident in Cali, earlier this week.
Rincon’s car collided with a bus, with the 55-year-old behind the wheel. The impact was such that all of the passengers in the car, as well as the bus driver, were hurt. Rincon’s situation became critical almost immediately.
The Colombian, who made his mark at club level with Bogota’s Santa Fe and then America de Cali in the late 1980s and early 1990s, represented Colombia 84 times during an 11-year international career from 1990 to 2001.
He also had 17 international goals to his name.
In World Cups in 1990, 1994, and 1998, the midfielder starred for Los Cafeteros, with cult icons Carlos Valderrama, Rene Higuita, Faustino Asprilla, and Leonel Alvarez, as well as Andres Escobar, who was tragically murdered shortly after the team’s elimination in 1994.
Rincon and Valderrama share the record for most World Cup appearances (10) for Colombia, having participated in all three group games in each tournament, as well as a quarterfinal match in 1990.
His club career first took him to Europe in 1993, when he joined Parma and later played for Napoli and Real Madrid. In 1997, he moved to South America and spent the rest of his career with a number of the country’s top clubs before retiring in 2004.
Rincon began his coaching career in Brazil at the lower league level, but he also worked as a youth coach at Corinthians in 2009 and as an assistant at Atletico Mineiro in 2010.
Sebastian Rincon, his son, is a professional soccer player in Argentina’s second tier.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
