World Cup ‘94: 16 Days and Counting : On a Lark : Soccer Simply Means Fun for Colombia’s Asprilla

Try as he might--and the extent and sincerity of his effort must be seriously questioned--Faustino Asprilla can’t seem to adopt the attitude of a European soccer professional.

The 24-year-old Colombian lives his life with a wink and a shrug. His success as a forward on Parma’s first division team has the citizens of this tidy town in Italy’s breadbasket chanting “Tino, Tino” at games with every feint and daring dribble.

Asprilla’s two years here have bonded him to a culture and people utterly different than his own--a relationship that has enriched both parties. Fans appreciate that Asprilla, unlike some non-Italian stars, bothered to learn the language, to which he adds a decidedly Spanish flavor. The fans have learned a little of Asprilla’s infectious South American love of life, with all its complexities. “As a person, I am happy, very happy,” Asprilla said, laughing. “I am always in good humor. I like to sing.”

Residents of Parma love Asprilla as they would a wayward but good-hearted neighborhood kid--the boy who habitually breaks windows with a baseball. Their tolerance was stretched when, after months of deluging his neighbors with high-decibel blasts of his beloved salsa music, Asprilla and his wife moved out of their in-town apartment to a house where, reports say, Asprilla still plays his music at levels that shake the olives out of the trees.

Still, Parma’s adoring fans happily indulge his eccentricities, usually involving automobiles. Asprilla is aware that there are rules governing the road, he simply doesn’t believe they apply to him. Asprilla was involved in six car accidents in his first two weeks in Italy. He once thought nothing of parking his sports car in a busy intersection for two days, reasoning that the light had been red when he left it. . . .

“The players know how he is,” a journalist who covers the team says. “They know it is impossible to ask him to be a European player. For him, football is a game, not work. That’s the difference. It is not right to say he’s not professional. He’s professional. But he’s a South American player, and that means football is a game and not a business.”

But to Parma club officials, Asprilla is big business. His modest transfer fee of $4.5 million two years ago would likely be doubled should Parma wish to sell him, which it doesn’t. His salary is reported to be about $700,000. “Asprilla is our Diego Maradona,” said Parma’s president, Giorgio Pedraneschi. “He is the player who can turn a match around at a moment.”

In last season’s Cup Winners’ Cup competition, between the postseason tournament winners of Europe’s pro leagues, Parma rallied to beat Dergefors of Sweden, 2-1, when Asprilla scored two spectacular goals in eight minutes. That night, the president of Colombia called Asprilla and let him know that when he played so well he was an “ambassador” of Colombia.

Asprilla took diplomatic license the next week against Turin in an Italian league match, scoring three goals, each showing his versatility: The first came on a header, the second using his left foot, the third using his right foot.

In the midst of his scoring run, Asprilla reverted to his old antics. The day of the game in Sweden, teammate Luigi Apolloni took Asprilla fishing at a nearby lake, although the Colombian had never fished. Asprilla saw it as an adventure, which it very nearly was. As he was rowing a small wooden boat to shore, Apolloni suddenly stood up, causing the boat to tip. Asprilla fell in.

Fortunately, he could swim better than he could fish. When Asprilla returned to the team hotel less than an hour before the match, he offered no explanation. His philosophy was that his two goals in the game spoke for him.

Asprilla said he doesn’t see the need to explain his sometimes erratic behavior. “How I play, this is important,” he said.

But his biggest stunt didn’t allow him to play in Parma’s most important game of last season, the Cup Winners’ Cup final against Antwerp of Belgium. Ten days before the game, Asprilla had returned to Colombia because of the death of his mother. When he returned to Italy, Asprilla limped in with a deep gash on his right calf, a cut that required 27 stitches and a month of recovery.

His coach, understandably, demanded an explanation. Asprilla initially offered none, but eventually said he had stepped on a bottle at his home’s pool. No one believed the story, but Asprilla stuck with it. The injury was seen as Asprilla’s letting down his teammates and even Parma’s victory against Antwerp did little to soften public opinion against him.

Neither did the real story of his injury. Typically, it involved an automobile. Asprilla was driving in Medellin and a city bus cut him off. He sped and cut off the bus, jumped out of his car and attempted to treat the bus to several of his free kicks.

Asprilla was already in trouble in Colombia for an incident during World Cup qualifying. He missed a penalty kick against Paraguay and was benched. Angry and embarrassed, Asprilla sneaked out of the team hotel and drove 150 miles in the middle of the night to see his wife, Catalina.

The Colombian Football Federation wanted to ban Asprilla for life, but World Cup Coach Jose Maturana argued that the team would not qualify if Asprilla did not play. Again, Asprilla let his actions on the field speak for him--he scored two goals in Colombia’s 5-0 upset of Argentina last September in World Cup qualifying.

While journalists frequently bring up these incidents, Asprilla doesn’t care to dwell on them.

“I have forgotten completely what happened last year,” Asprilla said in his soft, husky voice on the eve of Parma’s return to the Cup Winners’ Cup final, which it lost to Arsenal of England. “The life in Colombia is very different than the life in Europe. Not so fast. (My adjustment) has been difficult, because in Italy football is very different. The mind is different here. Here, they are all more involved in the game. All they think is football.”

Asprilla began to play soccer at 8 in his hometown, a small farming village near Cali. His professional career began at 15 with Cucuta Deportivo. He also spent three seasons with one of Colombia’s most powerful teams, Atletico Nacional in Medellin, the team owned by the late drug lord, Pablo Escobar.

Italian scouts saw Asprilla play in a youth tournament and were dazzled by his combination of explosive strength and grace. The frequent comparisons to Maradona are a reference to Asprilla’s exceptional ball control and his elusive running.

The elusive nature of Asprilla as a personality has perplexed his long-suffering coach, Nevio Scala. Parma and Scala were taking a chance on Asprilla even with his obvious talent because no Colombian player had lasted more than a year with an Italian club. “My coach gave me the opportunity to play here,” Asprilla said, smiling. “When I had bad things, he was very patient with me. He always gives me a chance to play.”

Asprilla is not specific about what bad things have happened. “Everybody has problems. Whatever problems I have are solved and I can solve them alone,” he said.

Asprilla remains unfazed, as ever. His ample enthusiasm is now turned to the World Cup and Colombia’s status as sleeping tiger, waiting to pounce on Group A, which includes the United States, Romania and Switzerland.

“This is the best Colombian team ever,” he said. “We hope to play good football. I know we will.”

World Cup Player Profile

Name: Faustino Hernan Asprilla.

Born: Nov. 10, 1969, Tulua, Colombia.

Height: 5-6.

Weight: 160.

Position: Forward.

Club: Parma, Italy.

National team debut: 1992.

Caps: 10.

Goals scored: Three.

Little-known fact: Performs a cartwheel after every goal he scores.

Honors: Member of the 1992 Colombian Olympic team, scored the winning goal against AC Milan to end that club’s 58-game unbeaten streak, scored four goals in eight games to lead Parma to the European Cup Winners Cup.