Gracias, Conquistador De Selangor

As the Malaysian Super League teams are preparing for the 2021 season due to the premature end of this year’s campaign. Some players have already given indication that they would with the most notable departure being Dickson Nwakaeme from Pahang, announcing the end of his 2nd stint with Pahang on his Instagram account.

However, there was another foreign striker that also bid farewell to a club where he enjoyed his stay. Striker Rufino Segovia officially announced his exit from the Red Giants following a rather eventful four-year spell with the club. It will surely be a stay that will be looked back fondly by the Selangor faithful as the Spaniard ends his spell in the Klang Valley with a total of 47 goals to his name during his time here.

As we look into his story, how did he find himself standing on the shoulders of the Red Giants?

His football journey started off in 2004 where he became a part of Rayo Vallecano’s B team. Early signs were promising for the Spaniard as he notched up 17 goals for them while also making just a handful of appearances for the first team. Seemingly, things were looking up for Rufino when he made the move to Atletico Madrid just one year later. However like in Vallecano, he also only found himself playing a huge chunk of his Atletico career with the B team and made only two appearances for the main side. Not making any headway into the main team, Rufino left Atletico in 2007 and started to journey around Spain playing for various clubs in Spain’s lower divisions.

Rufino in action for Atletico’s B Team (Credit- El Toledo)

Spells in Hungary for Honved and Romania for Poli Timișoara followed during that journey. Then, it was from Romania when he entered Asia for the first time in his football career by signing for Hong Kong’s top side Kitchee midway through the 2015-16 season, replacing fellow Spaniard Juan Belencoso amidst a title charge. He introduced himself to the Kitchee fans in some style as he scored a brace in Kitchee’s 3-0 win at South China in late January. While sadly falling short of the league title, Rufino’s performances saw him be named in Hong Kong’s Team of The Season by taking 2nd with 29.45% of the fan votes.

Rufino even had a taste of continental competition as he scored six goals in the 2016 AFC Cup that saw Kitchee win their group before getting KO’d by eventual runners-up that year, India’s Bengaluru FC, losing 3-2 at home in the round of 16 where Rufino scored the opener. While Kitchee fell short of the title in 2015-16, they did win the season play-offs that saw them enter the AFC Champions League play-offs. Unfortunately, Rufino didn’t start in either of Kichee’s AFC Champions League play-off games in early 2017 likely due to the foreigner limit rule where Kitchee almost shocked South Korean giants Ulsan Hyundai for a place in the group stages, only to lose dramatically on penalties.

Rufino (Right) tangling with a Kaya FC player to win the ball in an AFC Cup match in 2016 (Credit- South China Morning Post)

Rufino and Kitchee once again challenged for the league title in the 2016-17 season and this time they did taste the success they wanted. Partnering with another lethal striker in naturalized Hong Kong international Sandro, they won the 2016-17 title by two points. His most notable moment during that season was out of the nine league goals he scored, he scored seven of them in two games within a space of five days against Biu Chun Glory Sky (3) & HKFC (4).

And so Rufino at least celebrated domestic success in the end, but he exited the team in the postseason as Kitchee brought in Uruguayan legend Diego Forlan to prepare for their AFC Champions League campaign next year. So where to next for Rufino? That was when Selangor came calling and brought him in midway through the 2017 season.

However, Rufino’s transfer to Selangor was a bit mind-boggling for three reasons that time. For starters, he is replacing an attacking midfielder, Timor Leste’s Juliano Mineiro who actually came good for Selangor in his half-season stay where Selangor actually needed a playmaking midfielder. Secondly, Selangor at that time already had Liberian hitman Francis Forkey Doe in their ranks. The final reason was head coach P. Maniam’s preference for a 3-4-3 formation so accommodating the two primarily centre-forwards in the same line-up had to be a challenge.

Normally, signing for Selangor should be big. But he joined them during a time where they have been chaotically teetering on where they could go next in the future. Besides that, Selangor perhaps were still reeling from a terribly chaotic 2016 season as well. Even so, he did make a good account of himself as he scored five league goals and a further five goals in the Malaysia Cup before Selangor was knocked out by eventual runners-up Kedah 4-2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals. When the season ended, Selangor rather eye-opening opted to keep Rufino over Forkey Doe, perhaps to everyone’s surprise given Forkey Doe’s experience & reputation in the M-League. Little did we know then, it was a decision that will be vindicated.

It was in 2018 where Rufino really shined brighter than the Altingsburg Lighthouse in Kuala Selangor. It turns out that half-season in 2017 was just a warm-up to what Rufino can truly do. Rufino may have to see a chiropractor after the 2018 season because he carried the team on his back throughout a rough season. He won the league’s golden boot with 19 goals (five goals more than the runner-up Kipre Tchetche who had 14 with Terengganu). There was a sense that when the ball is played to Rufino, whether it’s headers, right foot, left foot or penalties, he will likely score when it’s handed to him on a plate.

Rufino celebrating a goal against in a 2-2 draw Vs. Johor Darul Takzim at Cheras in 2018 (Credit- FA Selangor)

He also helped Selangor make the FA Cup final by scoring nine on the way there where they sadly fell 2-0 to an excellent Pahang team that night. All in all, Rufino had scored 31 goals in 35 games across all competitions that year. It was because of his fiery goalscoring form that he won M-League’s Best Foreign Player of 2018 and deservedly so.

Forgive the transition to a first-person perspective but here’s a little author’s note: Before the first leg FA Cup semi-final clash with PKNS, when Rufino stepped out of the team bus I shouted “Rufino, score a hat-trick!”. Lo and behold, that is what he exactly did as Selangor ran out 4-0 winners that would virtually put them in the final. (Apologies for the video quality that time)

Recorded a video of the team bus arrival. Maybe around the 30-second mark I shouted it pic.twitter.com/LNSzbHuZSp
— Azri Firman (Hopes Everything Is Going To Be Ok) (@MrAzriFirman) June 23, 2018

Now back to the man himself. Even with his goals, he can only do so much to further carry an imbalanced Selangor team that was severely lacking depth. Selangor finished eighth as a result and embarrassingly got KO’d in the Malaysia Cup group stages later on in the year. So with a torrid season as a whole, can you imagine what would’ve happened if Rufino isn’t there to keep knocking those goals in? If you take out Rufino’s goals, Selangor would’ve been relegated as they would’ve been 10 points off without them, finishing 11th in the process. That season was perhaps to testament on how Selangor have been doing in those past few years and thankfully Rufino is there to help save them from further trouble.

Things were looking up for Rufino. Riding high on the momentum of that season, Rufino and Selangor were further boosted by the shakeup in management. The Raja Muda of Selangor became the new president with ambitions to put the Red Giants to the top again along with respected head coach B. Sathianathan was appointed as head coach following a fantastic one-and-a-half season with FELDA United prior.

But disaster struck Rufino with only just five games in. In a must-win game that would define Selangor’s season following a shocking poor start and it was a Klang Valley derby no less Vs. Kuala Lumpur, Rufino landed badly from an aerial challenge which resulted in him injuring his achilles tendon and sadly missing the rest of the season. This resulted in him getting deregistered in the second transfer window for Nigerian hotshot Ifedayo Olusegun.

But that was perhaps not the worst thing that happened to him that year. He revealed in an interview with New Straits Times last December that his father, Rufino Segovia Fernandez, tragically passed away that September. His father was Rufino’s motivation. According to Rufino, even if he scored a hat-trick, his father would still say he can do better. While mourning the loss, Rufino stated he wanted to keep going and keep scoring to honor his father’s memory heading into 2020. After all, he was the driving force behind Rufino’s love of playing football and scoring those goals.

Unfortunately, the Coronavirus pandemic hit 2020 and whatever momentum anyone has going into the year was derailed badly. Football had to come to a stop in order to stop the spread around the world. Eventually, things calmed down a bit here, but the season was cut short to only 11 games. Despite having Ifedayo Olusegun, Selangor retained Rufino for this season. However, Ifedayo’s scoring form saw the Nigerian nail the starting position with Rufino constantly being on the bench. Rufino did make use of his minutes though whenever he came on as he scored two more goals and even got some assists. However, with him always starting as a substitute, there was a sense that his time could be over with Selangor.

Rufino (right) after scoring what would be his final goal for Selangor against PDRM in an empathic 7-0 victory (Credit- FA Selangor)

After the 2020 season came to a premature end, his exit was all but confirmed. It was revealed by Rufino himself that he is leaving while Selangor is looking to revamp their squad for 2021. Rufino posted a touching message and a heartfelt video paying tribute to Selangor and the fans on his Instagram.

Rufino however did state in the same post that he wants to return as a coach someday and he also wants to tell his fellow countrymen all about Selangor as he goes back home to Spain, showing how much he loves the club deeply.

There was even a time that Rufino wanted to don the colors of Harimau Malaya in an interview last year. In fact, any addition to Malaysia’s centre-forward department would be welcomed and Rufino would’ve been excellent up front. After all, we’ve seen what he can do during that 2018 season. He even wanted to retire with Selangor but certain circumstances can change those plans rather drastically.

In a way, Rufino exited the club in the same situation when he entered when it comes to the Center Forward position. Selangor already had Forkey Doe when Rufino joined and Selangor now has Ifedayo when Rufino exited. He entered the club as a relatively unknown and he left as a memorable figure. But surely he wanted to exit the club on a high by winning the Malaysia Cup as his last contribution. Sadly that didn’t come to fruition due to the tournament being canceled under the government’s orders.

Just know this Rufino: You are always welcomed back to Selangor with open arms in any capacity. Terima kasih and gracias for all your contributions to the Red Giants, Conquistador Rufino. We hope to see you soon again! And who knows? We may see you again sooner than later!