Today I watched the ESPN "30 for 30" documentary "The Two Escobars” and it was absolutely fantastic. The doc discusses how the drug cartels started putting their money into Colombian soccer in the 1980s to launder money, led by the notorious Pablo Escobar. This climaxed at the 1994 World Cup when Colombia lost to the United States after an own goal by star player Andres Escobar, who was gunned down in the streets of Medellin upon returning to his native country. Shame of the incident prompted many fans and elite players to walk away from Colombian soccer, which was brought to prominence with the cocaine money from Pablo and collapsed after the own goal and subsequent execution of Andres...the Two Escobars.
This deserves some kind of award. The cartels gambled huge sums of money for Colombia to win, and after they lost to Romania in the first game of the 1994 World Cup, the death threats started coming in before the second game against the United States in an attempt to force victory. It was not successful.
PS: you can watch all 11 parts one after the other on Youtube window above. When part 1 is done, you can watch part 2 by clicking on the link that comes up. It really is a great documentary if you have the time.
ReplyDeleteTonight I decided to research how to embed Youtube videos in my posts. It took me all of 10 seconds to figure out how to do it. I wish that I had looked this up a year ago!