According to police, the two children, aged five and three, had been playing Monday evening in the park, but when their mother went to fetch them, she found only their bicycles.

Police, who continued to search for the children in the neighborhood, declined to call the disappearance a kidnapping.

Portocarrero, a star with the Atletico Huila and several other Latin American teams, told a local radio station that little was known about the children's disappearance, and urged anyone who knows their whereabouts to contact police.