After months of waiting since the announcement, and 13 years since their last visit to the country, Iron Maiden will perform at the El Campín stadium in Bogotá on Sunday, November 24. The visit of the emblematic heavy metal group to the country is marked in the concert calendar as one of the most important, to the point that it sold out in a matter of hours, exceeding the demand for concerts such as those of Karol G or RBD in 2023 .
The band headed by Steve Harris has a significant fan base in the country, but also has a particular relationship with Colombians because at some points in their career they crossed paths with those of Faustino Asprilla.
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In 1998, Iron Maiden released their 11th studio album, Virtual XIone of the two that recorded with Blaze Bayley as vocalist before their iconic vocalist Bruce Dickinson announced his return to the line-up. For the long-term promotion, the band decided to add a photo shoot to the booklet that accompanied the physical CD.
As football lovers (Steve Harris, in particular, is a West Ham fan), Iron Maiden decided to call up several players who were then active in the Premier League, including Paul Gascoigne, Ian Wright and Patrick Vieira. Among them was also Tino Asprillawho at the time was playing for Newcastle United.
A curious detail is that Asprilla was not a fan of rock or heavy metal, so when the proposal came to him, he did not know Iron Maiden. However, he agreed to participate in the photo shoot upon learning that he would be paid £5,000 at the time to appear wearing uniforms specially designed for the occasion, as if they were the Iron Maiden football team.
26 years have passed since that moment, but Tino has not forgotten it. Proof of this is that, in the midst of the enthusiasm for the band’s imminent visit to the country as part of their tour The Future Pasthe recalled the episode on his social networks.
In his X account he wrote: “Football leaves you friends as rockstars as the Iron Maiden phenomena. Welcome, partners. See you this Sunday on stage, but I warn you: I only sing salsaaaaa”tagging the official Iron Maiden account and accompanying the message with a short video that recalled their appearance at the album photo session Virtual XIalong with Steve Harris.
But it’s not all memories for Tino these days. In the preview of the Colombian national team’s match against Ecuador in Barranquilla for the Qualifiers (which ended with a 0-1 defeat), the former soccer player gave some controversial statements in which he described the Chelsea soccer player—in the end, one of the figures of the team led by Sebastián Beccacece—as “normalito”.
in the program ESPN F360Asprilla stated: “For me he is not a 130 million player. It’s normal, it’s not a big deal,” which triggered heated reactions in the Ecuadorian press and on social networks. These criticisms increased after the outstanding performance of Moisés Caicedo, who had absolute control over half of the field throughout the match, even leaving Richard Ríos in evidence throughout the match.
The Ecuadorian journalist Andrés Ponce, through his X account, defended Caicedo after the match and published a video with the player’s best moments against the Colombian team. “ Moisés Caicedo’s game against Colombia. “Someone show this video to ‘Tino’ Asprilla,” he wrote.
