Colombian soccer player Faustino “Tino” Asprilla, known also as ‘Octopus‘, said farewell to the sport Saturday in a friendly game attended by other celebrated figures like ‘Pibe’ Valderrama, Iván Ramiro Córdoba, Harold Lozana, ‘Tren’ Valencia, ‘Chicho’ Serna and Brazilians Roque Junior, Liz and Aílton.
The homage took place in the Atanasio Girardot Stadium in Medellin and was visited by many other eminent personalities who came to honor one of the best Colombian footballer of the last decades and also well-known for his adventures with women, his nudes and goals.
He solemnly arrived to the Stadium in a white limousine and walked to the center of the playground on a golden carpet as a hero. He was so as one who shone in teams like Italian Parma, the English Newcastle and the Brazilian Palmeiras and Fluminense.
The spectators did not forget to stop clapping one of the most world famous Colombians in sport, as his former companions of the Atletico Nacional, the Colombian national team and the guests from foreign teams like Palmeiras. They made a way for their celebrated companion, the same that have made more goals in the international football, for example 43 in Parma, 18 in Newcastle, 17 in Brazil, 5 in Chile and 3 in Mexico.
‘Tino’ went to the dressing room and wore the classical white&green Atletico Nacional uniform, the same of the team’s golden time on the 1990s. The 1991’s Atletico Nacional did score three goals and the spectators could appreciate the abilities of the veteran players who made fame some decades ago.
At the 25th minutes of the second half, a model came into the playground with a bunch of flowers for ‘Tino’ Asprilla, then the game was over with claps, embraces and few drops of tears.
If I were Brazilian or Argentinian…
“Tal vez mi carrera deportiva hubiera sido más brillante si fuera argentino o brasileño, por decir algo. Porque a nosotros nos han marcado por ser colombianos. A la hora de los votos estamos en desventaja”
“Maybe my sport career had been more brilliant if I were to be an Argentinian or Brazilian, to say something. Because we are marked for being Colombians and discriminated At the time of the votes, we are in disadvantage.” he said in an interview by El Colombiano and declared that what he did with Parma was so big as any other sport star of clubs like Barcelona, Juventus and Inter.
He said also that his worst moments in his career were when he was in Parma, he lost his mother and late footballer Andrés Escobar was assassinated in Medellín for a discussion after his own goal during the initial round of the 1994 World Cup in United States. He was also separated from the World Cup for discussions with coach Hernán Darío Gómez.
Faustino ‘Tino’ Asprilla is an amateur to horses and guns. For this last one he has had problems with authorities for doing shots in the air, quarreling and he has been arrested sometimes. He had also a romance with porn star Petra Scharbach and he himself posed naked, he says even these events helped him to increase his fame.
“Me sirvió para el currículo. Para sumar, como las copas. Quedan recuerdos hermosos…”
“It helped me for my curriculum. To add, for the cups. Beautiful remembrances remain,” he commented and says that he does not regret nothing and that it is the prize of fame.
The best times
For ‘Tino’ the best moment was the season with Parma (1992-1993) when he contributed to take the 58 unbeaten dates from Milan and he was among the four candidate players to receive the Golden Ball.
“Recuerdo otros grandes momentos, como las campañas con Newcastle de Inglaterra y con la selección de Colombia”
“I remember other great moments, as the campaign with Newcastle of England and with the Colombian team,” he said to El Colombiano.
Who is ‘Tino’ Asprilla
‘Tino’ is the short name for “Faustino”. He was born on 10th November 1969 in Tuluá, a city of the department of Valle del Cauca and he belongs to a generation of great Colombian figures like Carlos ‘Pibe’ Valderrama, René Higuita, Freddy Rincón, Leonel Alvarez, Adolfo “Tren” Valencia and many others of the golden age of the football in 1990s. His first games in football were in the sports school “Carlos Sarmiento Lora” and he was sent as a player of the Cúcuta Deportivo. From Cúcuta he went to Medellín to be a part of the Atlético Nacional team where he became well known in Colombia and to the rest of the world.
He left Colombia for the first time in 1994 to integrate the Parma in Italy and soon he became an authentic star contributing in the defeat of Milán. His international importance became evident when he was nominated among other three chosen sportsmen for the Golden Ball for twice. But Tino is not only a figure for the playgrounds but also he made news for yellow press when he got in romance with a porn star, something that some observers consider the reason for his decline.
From Italy, England was the second foreign country to see this South American star of football in Newcastle. Also there his performance was of brilliant with a hat-trick against FC Barcelona in the first phase of the Champions League of UEFA. He got a delicate injury in the knee and it marked his decline to end in Parma at the 1998 season. In 1999 he returned to South America, this time to Brazil as a forward player in Palmeiras club to participate in international events like Copa Mercosur, Libertadores de América and Intercontinental Club. In 2001 he went to Mexico to join Atlante team and he returned to Medellín in 2002. The following year he went to Universidad de Chile giving to the Austral team a good seson with five goals in 13 games though he had the persistent problem in his knee. His last presence in a professional football team was with Estudiantes de La Plata of Argentina where he played just two games and was not able to play due to the injury in his knee, then he returned to Colombia. Even then, he received an offer from Sport Ancash of Peru in 2008, but it was not possible for him to accept the invitation, because he was already out of sport activity.
Editor: Joseph Kizhakkedath, Kerala, India.