By James Connolly
Who are the five greatest Colombian footballer/futbol jugadores/soccer players of all time? It’s highly debatable, but here is the list that we came up with, in descending order.
Rene Higuita
Higuita nicknamed “El Loco” has crazy play style that was often dramatic and extremely unorthodox. He is said to be a pioneer for a style of play where goal keepers involve their feet more. Across his whole career he scored also managed to score 51 goals as he was a great free-kick and penalty taker. Finally, you can’t talk about Rene Higuita without mentioning his infamous scorpion kick save that he made against England in 1995.
Faustino Asprilla
Asprilla is one of the most legendary Colombian players scoring some really memorable and exciting goals for the national team. He was also extremely successful in Europe once being ranked as the number sixth best player in the world. Although he was better known for the quality of his goals rather than quantity he did still manage to score 20 for Colombia in 57 appearances during 1993-2011.
Radamel Falcao
Falcao has to be one of the deadliest strikers of the last decade and his club career proves that. During 2009-2013 Falcao made 185 experiences in which he scored a huge 141 goals. He has also registered 70 caps for Colombia and scored 28 goals for his nation. He has played for some of the biggest clubs in Europe including the likes of Athletico Madrid, Manchester united and Chelsea although he wasn’t in the best of form for at all of them. He’s now playing for AS Monaco again and has a massive 16 goals in just 18 appearances in the Ligue 1 this season proving that even though the forward is 31 years old he can still do a job, hopefully he’ll be able to carry his good form into the World Cup 2018 for Colombia.
James Rodriguez
Rodriguez gained stardom in the world cup 2014 when he was awarded the Golden boot for being top goal scorer over the whole competition bagging Colombia 6 goals and helping them to top the group. They then progressed to the quarter finals where they were unfortunately knocked-out by hosts brazil. Rodriguez was nominated for the Ballon d’Or that year where he ranked 8th in front of the likes of Kroos, Bale and Hazard. The impressive performance at the world cup earned him a transfer to one of the biggest clubs in the World, Real Madrid where he still plays but is currently out on loan at German giants Bayern Munich. He is currently only 26 years old so has plenty more years left to further improve his legacy.
Carlos Valderrama
Ask anyone the first thing they think of when you mention Valderrama and 9 times out of 10 they say his giant blonde afro! However, this man has to be Colombia’s greatest player of all time, he played during what’s known as Colombia’s golden Era of football during the 1990’s when the nation managed to qualify for the world cup 3 years in a row. Nicknamed “El Pibe” he made 111 appearances for Colombia and managed to pick up 11 goals from the midfield. He was well known as a creative playmaker who showed great elegance on the ball and brought a mixture of precise passing as well as impressive technical skills to the pitch. Carlos Valderrama never actually won anything with Colombia however, he was named Colombian “Player of the Century” picking up 70% of the vote in 1999 separating him as the greatest Colombian player ever.
How will Colombia get on in the World Cup this year then? It’s hard to call but they have plenty of quality players across the park and they’ve been placed in group H with Poland, Senegal and Japan which is certainly a group that they should be able to get out of. However, If you’re looking for World Cup tips or betting tips in general, then check out Oddschanger for news and previews leading up to the world cup.