Administrative turmoil in the Ecuadorian National Team’s environment continues to cast doubt on its presence at the World Cup in Qatar. Added to the confusion caused by the failure to allocate funds to the Ecuadorian Anti-Doping Organization was the debate over the nationality of Byron Castillo, who played for the Ecuadorian team despite being Colombian in the South American qualifiers.
(In context: can Ecuador stay out of the World Cup in Qatar? The last one).
While the International Federation of Football Associations (Fifa) has not made any announcements that Ecuador could be excluded from the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar, there is a great history of a Colombian player faking Ecuador.
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Rinson López, now 34 years old, sparked a scandal in the neighboring country at the end of 2017 because after spending nearly seven years in Ecuador claiming to be Ecuadorian, it was revealed that he was actually Colombian and was as determined. At that time, the Federation of Ecuador was also registered by Fútbol with false documents.
As if the impact of what happened wasn’t enough, A unique tradition that has continued for over 53 years at El Nacional Sports Club has come to an end due to its situation.He managed to play the preliminary stage of the Copa Libertadores and later resigned.
(You may be interested: If the Ecuador National Team is out of the World Cup… who will replace it?).
In 1960, the Mariscal Sucre Club was born in the city of Quito with the idea of becoming the emblem team of the armed forces. However, with the establishment of the military dictatorship in the country in 1964, its name came to contain the identity of the country and Club Deportivo El Nacional was established.
from the start The team’s directives determined that they would only have players born on Ecuadorian soil. However, with the prolongation of the military dictatorship, a number of factors began to influence the development of the club.
Initially, many people did not take kindly to the group that ‘represents tyranny’ in sports. However, many young men did their mandatory military service as team players. In contrast, the funding of the institution did not represent major problems due to the direct contributions of the armed forces to the club.
With this strength, ‘Elenco Militar’ won its first title in the national tournament in 1967 with players from all over Ecuador.
Over time, the perception of the people of Ecuador began to change and many of them became fans of ‘Los Puros Criollos’, which they called the club. In this way, El Nacional carries political, patriotic and nationalist overtones in its blood. All represented The logic of signing contracts only with Ecuadorian football players.
Incredibly, in 2018, a foreign player mocked the institution’s more than fifty years of history, becoming the first foreigner to score for El Nacional. This football player was Colombian defender Rinson López.
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López, who caused the scandal in December 2017 because of his nationality, said on a local radio: “I’ve come to Ecuador to work since I was 17 years old, there were people who wanted to help me, but they helped me in the wrong way. They took that document from me, and now I understand that I can calmly become a naturalized citizen.“.
Later, as what happened, López gave details of his situation in several media outlets.
“I had already resigned not to play football. There was a person who made us print newspapers so that we could work as Ecuadorians. Between my job and my borrowings, I collected around 4 million. It was a lot of money. It was invested”, López explained to ‘Diario As’ at the time.
“While selling newspapers, the option to play for Aucas Sports Society came up. My Ecuadorian football career started there. Then I went to Macará, Espoli, then several sophomore teams: Pelileo and JIT (Young Independent Tabacundo) And in 2017 I went to Nacionfor,” he added.
After scoring for El Nacional and playing in the Copa Libertadores qualifiers, The truth of his nationality was learned and his dream ended in Ecuador.
“We played the last game against Emelec and I had to go to the Federation on vacation. They told me ‘tell the truth or defend yourself’. I was suspended for 6 months for pleading guilty. Since then my phone has not stopped ringing. This became a hot topic on social media. The least serious thing is that I have neither underrated nor changed my name. It was a huge journey to get to where I’ve reached,” López said in his conversation with the aforementioned media.
Currently, after serving at a modest Spanish club, Rinson López is without a team. Despite this, he does not put aside his commitment to El Nacional from Ecuador.
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Source: Exame
