Colombia qualified for the 1994 World Cup in the United States by finishing top of their group.
During those qualification stages, they remained unbeaten and would eventually seal their place
at the tournament with a remarkable 5-0 hammering of Argentina in Buenos Aires.
With a team comprising Adolfo Valencia, Carlos Valderrama and Parma’s flamboyant and often
brilliant Faustino Asprilla, they were expected to go far into the World Cup. Famously, Pele himself
tipped them to at least reach the semi-finals. And if they were to live up to those expectations,
Colombia would also depend on the performances of Andres Escobar, a centre-back from Atletico
Nacional, who had quietly become one of the best defenders in South America.
The rise of Colombian football during that period was notorious. As early as the beginning of the
1970s, domestic football in the country had become a money-laundering vehicle for drug traffickers.
In the 1980s, as the value of cocaine exportation grew - up to and beyond
$4bn/year – so the number of clubs in cartel hands grew and the wealth of game exploded.
On the pitch, the consequence was a remarkable rise: better players, better teams,
better coaches. But while Colombian football was enormously successful, it could also be deadly.
While clubs were principally acquired as laundering tools, they also became a proxy
for a conflict between the various cartels. Principal among those was the Cali Cartel,
led by the Orejuela brothers, and Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel. Inevitably, given the money
and ego at stake on the pitches, stories of violence and intimidation were hardly rare.
One referee was murdered. Another reported being threatened with death if he didn’t
favour Pablo Escobar’s Atletico Nacional in an important Copa Libertadores tie.
So, Narco Soccer’s legacy is deeply tainted. But the Colombian team that travelled to the 1994
World Cup was still talented and, in a group containing the USA, Romania and Switzerland,
was expected to encounter few difficulties in advancing to the knockout stages.
In the end, though, it was actually far harder than anyone could have imagined.
Against Romania, the Colombians were beaten by a magical Gheorgi Hagi performance
and some inspired goalkeeping from Bogdan Stelea as they lost 3-1.
Back home, Colombia was still burning. Pablo Escobar’s death late in 1993 had done little to
quell the drug-related violence in Colombia or diminish the authority of the cartels.
Even before the tournament started, the dark hand of the drug war tapped on the team’s shoulder.
Ahead of that must-win second game, coach Pacho Maturana was about to give his team-talk at the
hotel when he received a threat, claiming that if he selected midfielder Gabriel Gomez, his own
family and that of his player would be murdered. Given no choice, Gomez left the camp to be
with his family and retired from international football.
The coach, according to his assistants, was tearful and visibly shaken.
The players were also terrified. Recalling the atmosphere before the game, Faustino Asprilla
recalls calling his own family and telling them to hide. He told journalist Richard
Sanders that “we knew there would be trouble if we didn’t win and that we would be killed”.
The US game was a disaster. In The Two Escobars, an ESPN documentary,
fearful players recalled standing for the national anthem before the match and, rather
than focusing on the 90 minutes ahead, wondering where the assassin’s bullet might come from.
Little surprise then, that Colombia’s football was inhibited and error-ridden in the first half.
Or that, in the 35th minute, Andres Escobar stretched to clear a mishit John Harkes shot,
but succeeded only in diverting it beyond his own goalkeeper.
The centre-back was a quiet leader who abhorred the drug trade and its impact upon his country’s
international reputation. He captained his club team, Atletico Nacional and won both the Copa
Libertadores and the Colombian Primera Liga. He was in his peak as a player and was set to move
to AC Milan following the tournament’s conclusion. He was also due to marry his long-time fiancée.
But he wouldn’t move to Italy and he wouldn’t get married. And there was no way back for Colombia.
1-0 became 2-0 in the second half and while they did score a late consolation, they fell
to their second consecutive defeat. They beat Switzerland in their final game, but Romania’s
win over the USA meant that Colombia were the first country eliminated from the World Cup.
After the tournament, Escobar returned to Medellin.
Just five days after the World Cup, he went out to a local nightclub with friends.
At the end of the evening, he became embroiled in an argument with three men in a car park.
And, after he got in his car, he was shot multiple times, each bullet accompanied by
a mocking shout of “gol!”, mimicking the cry of South American football commentators.
Escobar would later die in hospital; he was just 27 years-old.
To this day, the motivation for the crime remains unclear.
Some speculate that it was retribution for the own-goal and for lost gambling earnings among
those who had bet on Colombia to beat the United States. Others, including coach Pacho Maturana,
believe that Andres Escobar was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He was buried in Medellin, his casket draped in the green and white colours of his team.
Covering the funeral, the Los Angeles Times reported shouts for justice among the mourners
and a eulogy delivered by the country’s President, Cesar Gaviria,
in which Andres Escobar was described as “a loyal player, a complete man… and… a model Colombian.”
A cartel bodyguard would admit to the crime but only served eleven years in prison,
despite originally being sentenced to over 40.