In a tribute to the bushy blonde Colombian football star, Carlos Valderrama, an Argentinian wine producer will feature the celebrated player’s picture on their bottles.
The shaggy-haired midfielder is to have his picture printed on 30,000 bottles of wine from Argentine producer Raices de Agrelo.
The wine is a blend of cabernet sauvignon, malbec and syrah and will be released this April.
Popular and instantly recognisable, Valderrama (pictured) has played all over the world, starting in his native Colombia with Union Magdalena in 1981, moving to Montpellier, France in 1988; he moved back to Colombia from Spain and onto American league soccer in 1996, where he signed for Tampa Bay Mutiny.
He played over a hundred times for his country, many of which included captaincy. ‘El Pibe’ (‘the Kid’), as he is known, retired in 2003 and was voted Columbian player of the century in a local media poll in 2001.
Valderrama is not the first footballer to feature on the Argentine producer’s labels. The legendary Argentine striker Diego Maradona had his label on Raices de Agrelo bottles of cabernet sauvignon and malbec last year.
‘This will enable Colombians to toast his footballing success,’ Guillermo Arcani, Raices de Agrelo’s boss, told AFP.
However, Argentinians with a good memory are likely to find the wine hard to swallow. Valderrama produced some of his most impressive performances in 1993, especially when Colombia thrashed Argentina 0-5 in Buenos Aires.
Written by Oliver Styles
