René Higuita
René Higuita was born in Medellín, Antioquia Department, Colombia on August 27th, 1966 and is the Soccer Player. At the age of 57, René Higuita biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 57 years old, René Higuita has this physical status:
José René Zapata (Spanish pronunciation: [ne iita]; born 27 August 1966) is a Colombian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper in Colombia. He was nicknamed El Loco ("The Madman") for his high-risk'sweeper-keeper' playing style and his flair for the dramatic.
Higuita's style of play, which was first seen on television during the 1990 FIFA World Cup, was pioneering in convincing goalkeepers to accept more responsibility for incidents that were further away from the goal.
Higuita has been rated as the eighth best South American keeper in history by the IFFHS. He is also ranked as one of the top-scoring goalkeepers in history, with 41 goals overall.
Early life
Higuita was born in Medelln, Antioquia, to Jorge Zapata and Maria Dioselina Higuita. Higuita's father died before he was born, so his mother raised him. His mother died when he was young, so his grandmother took care of him.
Personal life
Higuita was a student with Diego Maradona and participated in the Argentine's farewell match in 2001.
Higuita was detained in 1993 after being complicit in a kidnapping. He was largely responsible for securing the release of Molina's child by delivering the ransom money, acting as a go-between for the drug barons Pablo Escobar and Carlos Molina. He received $64,000 for his services, which broke Colombian law because it is an offence to profit from a kidnapping. Before being released without charge, he was imprisoned for seven months. "I'm a footballer, so I didn't know anything about kidnapping rules," the attorney said.
Higuita confessed to being arrested while visiting Pablo during his time in jail with the intention of thanking him for his service, thus stabilizing Colombia for a brief period. All he was asked during questioning was about Pablo Escobar himself and no kidnapping, according to him.
Higuita was not eligible for the 1994 FIFA World Cup due to the term in prison. He tested positive for cocaine on November 23, 2004 while playing for Aucas, an Ecuadorian football team, in another controversy.
Higuita appeared on La isla de los famosos ("The Island of the Famous: A Pirate Adventure"), a television program that was similar to Survivor. He underwent plastic surgery in 2005 to completely change his appearance.
Higuita has expressed the desire to become more politically involved.
Club career
Higuita began playing for Millonarios and then moved to Atlético Nacional in 1986. He spent the majority of his college career with Colombia, where he helped the team win the Colombian League on two occasions as well as the Copa Libertadores and Copa Interamericana, which were both 1989. He went to Spain to play with Real Valladolid for a season before returning to Atletico Nacional for four years. He then went to Mexico to play for Veracruz before returning to the Colombian league to play for Atletico's city rivals, Independiente Medelln.
He briefly left in 2005 after failing a drug test while playing for Aucas.
On July 21, 2007, he came out of retirement to sign for Venezuelan side Guaros FC. In January 2008, aged 41, he signed for Deportivo Rionegro, Colombia's second division team. He signed for another Colombia team, Deportivo Pereira, in June 2008, and then resigned on January 25.
International career
The 1989 Copa América, Higuita's first major tournament, where the team was eliminated in the first round. For the first time ever, he was instrumental in the country's early 1990 FIFA World Cup victory. However, Higuita's unconventional playing style resulted in a foul call by him after he attempted to feint Cameroon striker Roger Milla but failed, and Cameroon defeated him and scored, sending Cameroon to the quarter-finals. It was described as "a mistake as large as a house" by Higuita. Higuita was nicknamed El Loco ("the Madman") as a result of such conduct.
He participated in the 1991 Copa América, where the team finished fourth. He was last called up to the national team for the 1999 Copa América.
Higuita also set-pieces for Colombia's national team, totaling three goals in his 68 international appearances.
Coaching career
Higuita has expressed the desire to work with the Colombian national team, and in December 2008 he took over goalkeeper coach for his former club Real Valladolid.
He joined Al Nassr FC in Saudi Arabia in 2011 and spent five years as the club's goalkeeper coach until 2016.
After returning to Atletico Nacional as the goalkeeping coach, he rejoined Atletico Nacional on June 28th, 2017. "The dream of my life was to return to Atletico Nacional," he said on returning to Atletico Nacional.