Higuita: The Way of the Scorpion

How does one feel with that vertigo...

as you step onto the field

full of emotions as well as fears?

The anticipation of winning

and the fear of losing.

Unique, incomparable, majestic.

Friends, now René serves...

Here in Colombia, we also have soccer.

And that was our great motivation.

René revolutionized the world.

The way he was on the streets,

that's how he played on the field.

To me, he's a goalkeeper of the future, undoubtedly.

You couldn't tell him not to leave the goal, not to take a free kick.

He scored seven free kicks.

He has scored 49 times

and is the top scorer in the world.

It's very nice soccer.

He's one of those touched by God,

like Diego Maradona, like Pelé,

like Messi.

He was an icon for us. René was everything to us.

A goalkeeper will hardly draw people to the stadiums.

René was a showman. Everyone wanted to go see René.

We love you!

We love you, Higuita!

"Look at each other's faces."

"We'll change the history of Colombian soccer."

Higuita, what were your best and worst plays?

That's hard.

It's hard because soccer and plays are like life,

where you have both good times and bad times.

Everyone seeks out people like us, especially powerful people.

At every party,

wherever there was indiscipline, you were sure to find René Higuita.

To be René Higuita's wife,

I had to fight many dragons, as they say.

As I left La Catedral,

a journalist asked me if I was friends with Pablo Escobar.

And I said yes.

We all make mistakes,

but only those with guts can admit it.

The Metropolitan Police have sent him to the city of Bogotá.

Ladies and gentlemen,

let's give a huge standing ovation for René Higuita!

The great absentee here in this tribute.

Higuita!

The referee allows it. Go, Mendoza!

It's a corner, René Higuita

defending the goal, the Colombian national team starter.

René at the center circle.

René took it with Pacho.

The people of Colombia are proud

of this generation of sportsmen.

Defending the goal is René. He sends the ball.

He turns around, grabs it again.

René sends the ball!

We might laugh about it, but actually,

what Higuita did today is very risky.

When it comes to sport, I'm 100% innocent.

THE WAY OF THE SCORPION

I'll show you some of the pictures.

There's a lot of them.

Pictures from our time at Real Valladolid

with Francisco Maturana.

From the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

A photo here with my teammate

on that '85 squad, Eduardo Niño.

Here is the photo with Pope John Paul.

I have a few,

and still I can't say that René Higuita is a saint.

Nor has anyone told me to say Mass for them

because I took a picture with John Paul II.

But out of the ones I like the most,

or the one I like the most,

is the Atlético Nacional photo.

JUNE 18, 1990 MILAN - ITALY

I remember I was the top goalscorer for my team.

It was our first match, and the goalkeeper didn't show up.

They put me in instead.

I did well. We won the championship.

So I became known as a goalkeeper.

In a country like ours of athletic excellence

in which soccer is considered the king of sports,

the stars of the ball are always the buzz.

That's why we're joined today by René Higuita,

who has been recognized internationally

as one of the world's most spectacular goalkeepers.

Ever thought Higuita would be so great?

He's always been great.

I've never had a problem because Higuita is the world's greatest.

His nonchalance towards all conventional plays

is the main secret of his success.

I move forward. I go up to the box.

That's how I feel.

That's how soccer felt to me.

If I didn't make a play,

I felt as though I wasn't on the pitch.

And it became a system.

I first saw him on the Nacional team.

He was ahead of his time.

How he played, how he cut across, how he overtook.

Of course, he risked a lot,

but he also saved a lot.

Sometimes people don't realize he was an extra defender.

A play that would end in goal, he'd already blocked it.

Goes to René.

He serves with his hand...

René was the one who'd start the attack.

The attack doesn't start with the striker, as they say.

It starts with the goalie.

He is remembered

for all the things he did differently from a regular goalkeeper.

Higuita was Higuita.

You couldn't tell him, "Don't leave the goal. Don't take a free kick."

As with all life's paradoxes, he's a scoring goalkeeper.

He not only saves but also scores.

He has notched 49 goals,

and thus, he's the top scorer in the world.

Higuita!

It's an art.

He had the ability to be a phenomenal goalkeeper.

He instilled certainty in everything, everywhere.

He was always optimistic.

I never heard him say negative things.

He was very strong mentally.

He struck me as someone very strong mentally.

He was genuine, spontaneous.

People thought he was cocky

because of how he played. No, that's who he was.

They'd say, "That son of a bitch is crazy."

Yes, he is crazy.

EX SOCCER PLAYER

He's mad, but he's a good madman.

He was "El Loco," The Madman.

Everyone started talking about René Higuita.

So I began playing farther upfield.

In Mexico, they know me as the striker-keeper.

René Higuita was the example at the international level.

And that became more and more revolutionary.

And I said, "I'm not wrong."

When we'd arrive at an airport,

it was as if they were welcoming a rock star

or a Hollywood actor.

It was impressive.

We didn't understand why we couldn't go to the movies with him,

to a mall, to an amusement park.

A goalkeeper will hardly draw people to the stadiums,

but Higuita did.

Among the whole soccer team

or among the national squad,

he was one of the most recognized,

both in leadership

and in the affection and charisma that he had towards the group.

Higuita, right?

Higuita, Leonel, Perea, Alexis.

We're all part of a team.

Here, it's not about just one player.

We were the core of the national team,

at Atlético Nacional.

We had about 10 or 12 players.

We also had the technical staff, with their kit men and all.

We went through very difficult times.

Colombians got used to living with guerrillas,

drug trafficking, street crime,

and underdevelopment, an explosive combination of violence and bribery.

PANIC AND DEATH IN BOGOTÁ!

75 WOUNDED

We suffered it first-hand.

For instance, when we headed to practice...

FORMER SOCCER PLAYER

...sometimes it was called off because in the streets of Medellín

or in the shopping malls,

they'd set off bombs.

A car bomb went off last night in Bocagrande.

Escobar strikes the streets once more.

He ordered their death.

In the long run, they'll be the ones who'll lose.

They'd have chats with us about the times our country was going through.

There was always a problem at a park, at a supermarket,

because of the social problem we were suffering.

Colombia!

We were celebrities back then.

At this level, everyone seeks out people like us.

Whoever it may be.

Especially powerful people.

Every now and then,

I've gotten that type of pressure by mail.

And they also threatened my family.

Everyone was after El Loco.

El Loco became so popular

and so charismatic in the country

that this kind of situation threatened his very life,

against his freedom.

I got a call from the president

of the Atlético Nacional team back then.

And he said,

"An avid fan of Atlético

has a problem."

The problem