From Garrincha to Heleno: Botafogo and Junior Barranquilla have stars in common | botafogo

Botafogo and Junior Barranquilla face this Wednesday, at 7pm at the Nilton Santos Stadium, the first duel of the group stage of Conmebol Libertadores 2024. The history of the two teams has already intertwined off the field thanks to great black and white idols.

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Founded in 1924, Junior is the fifth largest Colombian champion, with 10 titles, the last of which was won at the end of the 2023 season. It was runner-up in the Copa Sudamericana in 2018 and its best campaign in the Libertadores is a semifinal match.

The club experienced ups and downs in its history and abandoned professionalism for 12 years in the 1950s due to a financial crisis. Before this crisis, however, he managed to be national runner-up in 1948.

In pursuit of the title, he hired Brazilian star Heleno de Freitas, at the time leaving Vasco after falling out with coach Flávio Costa and some teammates.

The Brazilian even enchanted Gabriel García Marquez, Colombian writer who won the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature. At the time working at the newspaper El Heraldo, the young Colombian wrote chronicles about the stars of the time, citing Heleno de Freitas as “Dr. Freitas” in some of them.

García Marquez stated that the player “wrote this afternoon, with his feet, memorials and judicial sentences not only in Portuguese and Spanish alternately, but also quotations from Justinian in the purest classical Latin”.

Heleno had a law degree in addition to playing football. He played the entire 1950 season for Junior before returning to Brazil.

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After 13 years away from professional football, Junior returned to compete in Colombia’s first division in 1966. The return saw the arrival of three Brazilian stars, two of them world champions with the Seleção: Garrincha, Quarentinha and Dida.

The right-winger, two-time world champion with Brazil and greatest idol in Botafogo’s history, only entered the field once. On August 25, 1968, against the Independiente Santa Fé team, from Bogotá.

The final score was 3-2 for the visitors. Garrincha didn’t score a goal, lost the match and became the subject of jokes in the newspaper “El Espectador” the following day, with the headline “Garrinchazo de Santa Fé”, in reference to Maracanazzo.

Quarentinha, like Heleno, stayed at the club longer and left a mark on history. He is still remembered with affection today, just as he is in General Severiano, where his name is engraved in history. There were 12 goals scored by the Rojiblancos, all in the 1967 Colombian Championship.

The striker from Pará is to this day the top scorer in Botafogo’s history, with 313 goals scored. He won three Cariocas Championships and two Rio-São Paulo Championships with the club. His trademark was the fact that he didn’t celebrate the goals he scored. According to him, he was just doing what he was paid for.

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