Alappuzha  :

Naveen Manoharan (24), who hails from Varanad in Cherthala is now known as René Higuita among his friends after his ‘scorpion kick’ video went viral on social media.

Higuita is a retired Colombian football goalkeeper who was nicknamed ‘El Loco’ for his high-risk ‘sweeper-keeper’ playing style and his flair for the dramatic. Naveen, who is a die-hard fan of the Colombian goalkeeper, has been practicing Higuita’s audacious save since his Plus Two days. He started to do scorpion kicks when he became the captain of their village football team Vasco Varanad in Cherthala three years ago.

“My home is near the playground of Vasco Club, which has been organizing all-Kerala football tournament for the past 33 years. I started to play at the ground when I was a first standard student. While I was pursuing Plus Two, we had a chapter in Malayalam on Higuita, who wowed the world with his scorpion kick  while playing for Colombia against England in 1995. Since then, I became curious, collected his details and watched YouTube video of his saves,” he said.

But, that special kick remained elusive for a while, he admitted. “I tried to do the scorpion kick and failed many times. But I was not ready to go back and I never gave up. Three years ago, I could do it perfectly. The video of my save, which went viral on social media, was shot on Sunday by one of my friends. He and my cousin Abhijith posted it on social media and now my friends call me Higuita,” he said.

Naveen, an ITI instrumentation holder, is from an ordinary family and his friends are confident that Argentina will win the World Cup this time.