Carlos Valderrama

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Carlos Valderrama
Carlos Valderrama 2016.jpg
Valderrama in Tampa in 2016.
Personnel
Surname Carlos Alberto Valderrama Palacio
birthday 2nd September 1961
place of birth Santa Marta ,  Colombia
size 175 cm
position midfield player
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1981-1983 Unión Magdalena
1984 Millonarios
1985-1987 Deportivo Cali
1988-1991 HSC Montpellier 77 0(5)
1988-1990 HSC Montpellier B 8 0(1)
1991-1992 Real Valladolid 17 0(1)
1992 Independiente Medellin
1993-1995 Atlético Junior 82 0(4)
1996-1997 Tampa Bay Mutiny 43 0(1)
1998 Miami Fusion 22 0(3)
1999-2001 Tampa Bay Mutiny 71 0(5)
2001-2002 Colorado Rapids 39 0(1)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1985-1998 Colombia 111 (11)
1 Only league games are given.

Carlos Alberto Valderrama Palacio (born September 2, 1961 in Santa Marta ) is a former Colombian football player who is considered by many to be the best Colombian player of all time. Even in the times of Zico and Maradona , he was twice South America's footballer of the year .

Valderrama - also known as El Pibe ("The Boy") - was noticeable for his lemon-yellow hair as well as for his brilliant passing and covering.

Career

society

Carlos Valderrama began his career in 1981 with Unión Magdalena in the Colombian first division. In 1984 he moved to Millonarios for a year before moving to league competitor Deportivo Cali for the 1985 season. In the summer of 1988, the central midfielder ventured into Europe. The French club Montpellier Hérault SC lured him to France. With Montpellier, Valderrama made it into the final of the French Football Cup in his second year .

The statue of Carlos Valderrama in his native city of Santa Marta

In the Parc des Princes you could defeat RC Paris 2-1 after extra time. It was Valderrama's first and last title win in a European league. For the 1990/91 season he moved to the Spanish representative Real Valladolid . One of the reasons for this was that Valladolid had previously hired Colombian coach Francisco Maturana , under whom Valderrama had already played in the national team between 1987 and 1990. The time in Spain, however, was not optimal. After ninth place in 1990/91 you could only win seven in the 1991/92 season and were relegated. Valderrama then moved back to his home country, where he signed first with Independiente Medellín and then with Atlético Junior . At Junior he found his strength back and was named South America's Footballer of the Year for the second time since 1987 . He was also able to win the national championship with the club in 1993 and 1995. It was his first success in Colombia.

He spent the last few years in the US Major League Soccer at Tampa Bay Mutiny (1996-97, 2000-01), Miami Fusion (1998-99) and Colorado Rapids (2001-02), where he ended his active career. In the MLS he was successful again, was able to win the MLS Supporters' Shield in 1996 and in the same year was selected as the best player of the season in the MLS Best XI .

In February 2004 Valderrama celebrated a farewell game after a 22-year career in which some of the most important South American players took part in Diego Maradona (but could not play actively), Enzo Francescoli and José Luis Chilavert .

National team

Valderrama was a member of the Colombian national football team between 1985 and 1998 . As captain, he led the team to the 1990 , 1994 and 1998 World Championships . At the '90 World Cup, Valderrama made his World Cup debut against the United Arab Emirates on June 9, 1990 . In the 2-0 win, he also scored the second goal for his team. It was his only one at a World Cup finals tournament. After a defeat against Yugoslavia , there was a draw against Germany . He is remembered for this game by two actions. On the one hand, shortly before the end of the first half, after a slight foul by Klaus Augenthaler, he lay motionless for minutes and had to be taken off the field on the stretcher, only to continue playing a minute later, obviously uninjured. On the other hand, after Germany's opening goal just before the end of the game in stoppage time, he provided the template for his equalizer with an elegant pass to Freddy Rincón . Then the team moved into the round of 16. There you had to travel home after the 1: 2 defeat against Cameroon . Valderrama never missed a minute of the tournament. Four years later in the USA and in 1998 in France, the Colombian team was eliminated after the preliminary round. Valderrama never missed a game.

See also:

Private

Valderrama comes from an important Colombian football family. His father, the mathematics teacher Carlos "Jaricho" Valderrama Puche , was a national player, took part in the World Cup qualification for the 1966 tournament and won the 1968 Colombian champion with Unión Magdalena . His two brothers Ronald and Alan also worked as professional football players, as did his nephews Julián, Édison and Miguel González Palacio. His uncle Pablo (called "Toto" or "Sabú") and his sons and thus Valderrama's cousins Didí Álex and Pablo Yico Valderrama already pursued the same profession . Other soccer players in his family were Aníbal "el Pollo" Yáñez in the 1920s and Aurelio and Justo Palacio in the 1960s, who can be assigned to the line of his mother Juana Palacio. His distant relative Nicole Valderrama plays in Germany for the second selection of VfL Bochum and has attended some DFB youth viewing courses.

successes

society

Individually

useful information

  • Valderrama is the only Colombian chosen by Pelé on the FIFA 100 list.
  • Valderrama is the first Major League Soccer MVP.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carlos Valderrama in the database of National-Football-Teams.com (English)
  2. ↑ Fallció 'Jaricho' Valderrama, papá de 'El Pibe' (Spanish) on elespectador.com from 23 August 2016, accessed on 29 December 2016
  3. ↑ South American feeling for the ball - Vest-Sport | DerWesten (accessed December 4, 2011)
  4. ↑ VfL Bochum 1848 Women II 2012/13 ( Memento from September 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

Commons : Carlos Valderrama  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Valderrama, Carlos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Valderrama Palacio, Carlos Alberto (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Colombian soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd September 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Santa Marta , Colombia