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Spoiled Coffee: Back to Carlos' nightmare and the drama Varna Higita in Valladolid
In 1991, coach Francisco of Turana built a "little Columbia" in Valladolid, with his team's three prominent stars.
The dream soon crashed, the crowd hated them, and everyone ran away even before the season ended.
Modest players like Sean Weissman are more successful there
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Carlos Valdrama
Rene Higita
Valladolid
Michael Yochin
Friday, September 11, 2020, 7:00 p.m.
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"Valladolid is a small club, and it remains a small club," Rene Higita said a year ago.
Nearly three decades have passed since the dismal adventure of the Colombian goalkeeper in Spain, but the insult still remains.
His ambitions then dissipated within weeks.
He dreamed of cracking a fine European career, but instead never returned to the old continent.
It was also the fate of his good friends, Carlos Valdrama and Lionel Alvarez.
This is how the most intriguing and fascinating project in the group's history crashed in purple and white.
The promise was enormous, and the disappointment even greater.
It started in the summer of 1990, when Colombian football was in vogue.
Francisco Maturana, a graceful young dentist, was then one of the hottest names among coaches.
He drew inspiration from Arigo Saki's Milan, but added a South American fragrance to it and built two empires in parallel.
His beloved Atletico Nacional, where he spent almost his entire career as a player, marched to a sensational 1989 Libertadores Cup win.
At the same time, he also lifted Colombia to the World Cup, where she ignited the imagination and won hearts, until she was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Roja Mila's vault.
Immediately after the tournament, Matrana decided it was time to try himself in Europe, and Valladolid won his services.
Fans in the city, located about 200 kilometers north of Madrid, welcomed him with open arms.
The team stuck a stake in the senior league in the 80s, was not far from winning the trophy and even qualified for the UEFA Cup, but aspired to climb even higher. With a revolutionary and charismatic professional on the lines, she believed it was possible. Trustee Diego Bergan, but also Alvarez, the back midfielder who combined determination and toughness with a high technical level and game management skills. He fitted in well, and alongside a dizzying pace of yellow cards he greatly upgraded the lineup. The team gained momentum as the season progressed, finishing in eighth place. Decided to gamble on the Colombian coach,
rumors began as early as May 1991, President Ramon Mendoza did not hide his intentions, and some claimed that the contract was signed. Torana got the apartment in Valladolid, moved to the capital and prepared to take the job, but something went wrong along the way. Radomir Antitz 'The Serb remained at the Santiago Bernabeu, and Toranana followed in his footsteps. Valladolid was happy with the turnaround, and President Gonzalo Gonzalo (yes, that's the name) gave him a free hand to strengthen the squad. So it was decided to expand the Colombian colony and add the two biggest stars of the coffee towers. Valdrama and Higita landed in the humble club
To march it to new heights - who would have believed?
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To the full article
Hope became an ongoing nightmare.
Vladrama and Higita (Photo: GettyImages)
Hope became a nightmare.
And drama and Higita
Contacts with the famous blonde mane playmaker were quick and ended successfully as early as June, interfering with Colombia's preparations for the Copa America that infuriated the association.
Valderrama left French side Montpellier after three years to reunite with Torrana and Alvarez, and the trio began to persuade their goalkeeper to join the mission.
It was not easy, and Atletico Nacional really did not want to part with the icon, but two weeks before the start of the season the deal was completed.
"I chose the players. If we fail, I will have no excuses," Maturana declared, and the stands cheered for the new foreigners - until the first round.
The affair between the Valladolid fans and the Colombian team was particularly short, because Higita made a mistake in the premiere - he was responsible for the absorption when the Purple-Whites lost in their stadium 1-0 to Gihon.
The second home game was much worse.
In the second minute, Higita's hallucinatory exit to the Austrian Tony Polster to send the ball into the exposed net.
Valladolid equalized immediately, but on the verge of the break whistle the Colombian goalkeeper dropped a simple ball and allowed him to cross the line.
Valdrama did nothing and looked frustrated and resentful, Logronis won 1: 2, Maturana was left without points after three rounds - and the contemptuous whistles began to be heard loudly.
At the same time, it turned out that Valladolid was outrageously financially underestimated, its debts skyrocketed to unreasonable proportions, many players were unpaid, and Atletico Nacional did not see a single pasta of the amount it deserved for Higita.
According to newspaper reports, the goalkeeper had already considered packing his belongings and returning to his homeland, and the club could not hold him.
These publications further damaged his standing in the eyes of the public, and with each passing week the confrontation between the Colombians and the Ultras intensified.
At one point, it was already a war.
The actors lost motivation, and the audience lost faith in them.
The project that looked so shiny on paper collapsed like a dilapidated tower of cards.
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The project collapsed like a card tower.
Francisco from Turana (Photo: AP)
Luck also went against Valladolid.
Rough misjudgments against her, missed penalties, bizarre misses - all of these got Maturana out of his mind, and he even picked up the first yellow of his career when he argued with the referee.
It was nothing compared to Alvarez, who got tickets in both colors at a dizzying pace, often abandoning his slot when he was on the field.
All Colombians were appallingly weak in the 5-1 defeat to Atletico Madrid, and Valdarma was even replaced at the start of the second half.
Maturana declared after the final whistle that he was ashamed of the result, while Higita - who was again guilty of some of the balls that went into the net - no longer kept things in his stomach.
The goalkeeper is tired of the attitude of the management and the fans, and he unpacked everything in an interview with El Mundo Deportivo.
"When you do not get what you were promised, it is very difficult to play properly. I came here with high hopes, but everything is the opposite of what I imagined. I keep thinking about leaving, and whoever needs to know about it has already received the updates. If there is no change for the better "I will not return from Christmas vacation in Colombia," the goalkeeper stated.
The criticism only intensified, and everyone was on target.
Teresa Soro wrote in the newspaper El Pais: "Vladrama only thinks about his hair. The club paid a lot of money for it, but gets nothing, and his introverted nature does not allow him to influence what happens on the pitch. Higita was signed to Maturana's explicit request that the method be balanced. "Thanks to him, but in practice he is the weakest goalkeeper in the league, and the home side suffers from insecurity because of him.
Never returned to Europe after the dubious experience.
Vladrama (Photo: GettyImages)
"The atmosphere around the team is not good," complained Toranana, admitting in an unprecedented way that he was considering using the Colombian stars only in away games in order to spare them contemptuous whistles at the home stadium.
However, within a short time it was no longer relevant.
In late December, after a miserable 2-2 draw against Tenerife that was numerically inferior throughout the game, Higita realized the threat - and just went his way.
"I'm mentally exhausted, my head is not working, and my body is not listening to me anymore either. I hope my departure will help the group. May everyone have success. This business really did not go according to plan," he said - and returned to Medellin.
Without him, Valderrama and Alvarez went up to battle Barcelona at the Camp Nou in early January.
When Valladolid conceded an unjustified goal in their opinion, they teamed up to judge Judge Andohar Oliver.
"They called me garbage and a thief, and cursed my mother. I've been working for 30 years, and I've never heard such insults from actors," said Oliver, who distanced them both.
For Alvarez, it was a third red in just 12 games.
For Vladrama he was first, but he also scored just one goal in the Spanish league.
The two then finished their way in the group, less than a month after Higita.
The playmaker went to Independiente Medellin, the back contact chose America Cali.
They, too, never returned to Europe.
Maturana bit his lip and stayed a little longer.
He even managed to beat Real Madrid, in a kind of revenge for not signing in the summer, but the team continued to sink to the bottom, and he was sacked in early April.
The results only worsened afterwards, and Valladolid's campaign - which commentators had expected at least a ticket to Europe at the start of the season - ended in relegation.
Her top-quality strangers on paper turned out to be the worst in her history.
It is he, who comes from below, who can succeed.
Sean Weissman (Photo: Valladolid's official website)
And it has to be said that in general does not really go to Valladolid with strangers.
Fans remember well some stars - led by the exciting Honduran midfielder Gilberto Yarwood in the early 1980s, Argentine goalkeeper Carlos Panoi who maintained stability in that decade, Bolivian stopper Juan Manuel Pania who was a solid rock in the backcourt between 1995 and 2004, and Croatian striker Alan Petranatz Still leads the all-purple-and-whites conquest ranking with 55 league goals, but overall it is a club that is mostly identified with the local Spaniards.
This is the situation even now.
Newcomer Sean Weissman, who received the No. 9 shirt in Ronaldo's project, is one of the few foreigners on the roster.
The former Brazilian star, who decided to buy the club two years ago, is of course the most glorious "foreigner" that Valladolid has known by a considerable margin.
The few big names who have been tried on the grass have had a resounding fiasco, and it is precisely modest players who have a higher chance of success.
This improves the chances of the Israeli scorer to leave a good impression at the Jose Syria Stadium.
If he spends a good few years there and tears up nets, he will be one of the best foreigners in the history of Valladolid.
Somewhat amusingly, this continuum is just low.
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