The legend of El Loco – 30 years since the scorpion kick

Rene Higuita was inspired by a Colombian child’s television commercial for soda. The goalkeeper instinctively threw both legs behind his back and punted the ball away as he juggled it in the air.

Two years later, having made it his party trick in training and warm-up routines, the stars aligned for Higuita to write his legacy under the hazy Wembley floodlights.

Jamie Redknapp, an England midfielder, was already known for his flamboyant style, who watched it fall over his head before hurling forward and jolting his heels like a scorpion’s tail as he watched it fall.

In his Netflix film “Higuita: The Way of the Scorpion,” Higuita recalls the “perfect ball.” “I thought ‘ no problem’. It was flawless.

Higuita immediately burst into his iconic grin as he broke his fall with two hands on the turf while holding his baggy blue keeper’s jersey in hand halfway up his forearms and sprinkling it with long, black curls.

On commentary for Sky Sports on the night of 6 September 1995 was Martin Tyler, who initially thought the referee’s whistle must have gone – after all, the linesman put his flag up – but play continued.

Tyler tells BBC Sport, “I was perplexed. Why would they do it if no one would do it in real time? It was like there was something mysterious going on. It came out of the blue. He deceived Jamie Redknapp and duped everyone on the gantry”!

Bryan Robson, part of the England coaching team, could be seen laughing on the bench almost in disbelief and there was a similar reaction among the fans, despite just 20, 000 of them filtering into the national stadium for a Wednesday night friendly in an era characterised by low attendances.

Simon Pryde, a host of BBC Radio Newcastle who was present, recalls that there was silence and that “people were just trying to fathom what had just happened.” Then, “Everyone just burst into a mixture of spontaneous laughter and applause.”

England centre-back Steve Howey, who had been tasked by Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan with providing a scout report on the Colombia forward he was marking, one Faustino Asprilla, assumed the game must have stopped.

Higuita used to come out and dribble past forwards and join in play, and he was a total idiot. He wasn’t exactly the kind of person who was incredibly trustworthy. For someone like him, it wasn’t really surprising, says Howey.

“Everybody thought the referee had blown his whistle but as we found out quickly, he hadn’t – if it had gone in it would have counted”.

Fans tried to recreate Higuita’s physics-defying save in parks and playgrounds across the nation after the otherwise forgettable friendly ended goalless.

A commentator glared his eyes in disbelief as a result of Tyler’s observation that “it was just the eccentricity of one particular goalkeeper at a particular moment.” “It’s from a comic book, really. It resembled Roy of the Rovers, a fictional schoolboy.

Higuita admits that some people would refer to him as a clown, while others would describe him as a pioneer. But Higuita had both the bravado and bravery of a child who lost his mother when he was young, growing up with his grandparents in a Medellin neighbourhood gripped by drug feuds and social problems.

He would sneak on the bus to training, sneaking up to play as a striker, scoring goals on the pitches built by drug lord Pablo Escobar, and don gloves only after a teammate got hurt. Before joining Atletico Nacional, he signed for Millonarios and was then paid for a contract.

There is grainy footage of Higuita tackling forwards outside his box, winning headers, playing one-twos and dribbling past players on the halfway line on dusty, worn-out pitches covered in reams of ticker tape and unravelled loo roll thrown from the stands. His touch maps would become a viral phenomenon in the modern game.

El Loco, or “the Madman,” as coach Francisco Maturana dubbed him, played a key role in Atletico Nacional’s victory over Paraguay in a shootout in 1989, saving four penalties and adding one of his own as Atletico beat Paraguayans Club Olimpia 5-4 in the final.

“He was ahead of his time”, says Jorge Campos, legendary Mexico goalkeeper of the same era, in Higuita’s Netflix documentary.

Indeed, Higuita’s heroics were broadcast on a global stage at Italia 90, Colombia’s first World Cup in 28 years, with Maturana serving as the nation’s manager and a desire to use a system inspired by the Netherlands’ Total Football.

“He was a pioneer when it came to his skill with the ball at his feet and in his willingness to take responsibility for situations 40 metres from goal”, South American football expert Tim Vickery told BBC Sport when Higuita retired.

The 5’9″ stopper saved a penalty in the opening game of the UAE against Yugoslavia and was at his best in a fiery draw against West Germany, heading two balls outside his box and juggling another with Jurgen Klinsmann’s hand to win it.

As Colombia made its first appearance in the last 16 of the national newspaper, the headline read, “All for one, Higuita for everyone.”

But in that meeting with Cameroon, Higuita’s penchant for venturing upfield proved costly. When Higuita took a poor pass and took a loose touch that the forward pounced on, scoring a decisive second, Roger Milla already had an advantage in extra time.

Goalkeepers were permitted to pick up the ball after receiving it from their own player up until the 1992 introduction of the backpass rule at the Barcelona Olympics.

Higuita believes that his style, which showed goalkeepers could use their feet effectively, was key to the decision to change the law, as well as Italia 90’s record-breaking 2.2 goals per game.

It became widely known as the ‘ Higuita Rule’.

According to Higuita, “football greats like Pele and Diego Maradona were very good players, but they haven’t altered any rules in Fifa.”

Higuita was a Colombian icon, alongside Carlos Valderrama, one of the most recognisable faces of the national side. He was also a target, though.

Escobar turned himself in to the authorities a year after the World Cup, where he spent the year locked up with his own “personal” prison, La Catedral, as the drug war got worse.

Many footballers would visit, often summoned for kickabouts – it was an invite you could not turn down, though few were as noticeable as Higuita.

The goalkeeper controversially responded that he was a friend of Escobar when questioned by TV reporters outside the mountaintop jail on the outskirts of Medellin.

When Escobar later escaped, Higuita would end up putting him on a harsh sentence for his well-known association with the notorious criminal.

The goalkeeper found himself caught between cartels following the kidnapping of the teenage daughter of Carlos Molina, a rival of Escobar. Both figures invested in Colombian football. Higuita claims that he was hired as an intermediary to pay Molina’s daughter and return her.

The family insisted he take a cash gift for his role but in doing so Higuita broke strict anti-kidnapping laws. He claims that more than just his own case led to his seven-month sentence in which he claims he was questioning about Escobar’s whereabouts.

Higuita was let go without charge after Escobar’s passing in December 1993.

“I acted for humanitarian reasons”, he later told Fifa. I would immediately do it if I were ever required to free someone. I’m a football player, so I had no idea what kidnapping laws were.

Colombia players had continuously campaigned for his release, chanting his name after winning 5-0 in Argentina to qualify for 1994 World Cup. However, Higuita would not be selected to represent the United States.

A few months before that iconic Copa America appearance at Wembley, Higuita admits he feared his party trick had ruined his chances of winning. However, he recovered and made it for the Copa America.

“They always call me a clown and here’s me proving them right”, he said.

He might have done it. Before retiring from international duty in 1999, Higuita would only play six more games for Colombia, which could indicate that his nation was moving along.