The Powerful Arsenal: 6 Bullets in Pele’s Black Horse’s Muzzle

Before being shot dead with six bullets, Colombian international Andres Escobar claimed he couldn’t sleep for five days after scoring an own goal against Team USA in the 1994 World Cup.

Before the World Cup, organized in the USA in 1994, Pele himself described the Colombians as a “dark horse”, meaning that this is a strong team that no one pays attention to, and did not rule out winning medals, or even the championship. title.

The king of football had reason to say so. In the World Cup qualifier, the Colombian team beat Argentina 5-0 in Buenos Aires, and they were welcomed in their country as champions. Even then Colombian President Cesar Gaviria went to the airport to receive them, and accompanied a procession with the players on a trip to the capital Bogota with at least 40,000 fans.

Some expected a miracle from the Colombian team in the USA, but something completely different happened: starting from the first match, Romania lost with a score of 1:3. In the second interview, Escobar’s “fall” took place. The American team was losing 1-2, and in the 34th minute, Andres, the defender, tried to intercept the shot of the American John Harks and crawled towards him with full force, so that he hit him in the leg and hit the goal. . The victory in the third match against Switzerland with a score of 2:0 did not change things, and the Colombian team returned to their country ahead of schedule, disappointed, and Pele’s expectations did not come true.

He began receiving threatening messages even before he arrived in Colombia from the United States. His international friends advised him to stay for a while, until the mood and thoughts calmed down, especially since the Colombian fans vowed to wrest the “traitors” from the players who had disappointed them.

Escobar stated after his return to his country that he had nightmares in his sleep, pointing out that he constantly dreamed of “the ball flying from my feet into the net”, while noting that it “is so” . game, sometimes things like that happen Bad things about football.

Turning a Renegade Target into an Assassin:

Colombian defender Andrés Escobar walked into a bar in his hometown of Medellin on July 2, 1994. Drink and hang out with friends.

Everything was going well, but Escobar turned to two bar patrons, brothers Pedro and Santiago Galleons, two well-known drug dealers in the city, who, while drunk, began to mock their country’s footballer, who was called “Knight”. for his skill in defense and noble play, and with bitter sarcasm congratulated him on the goal.

The Colombian player tried to avoid the worst and hurriedly left the bar in the parking lot. When he tried to get into his car, he was shot six times in the head at close range.

The Colombian defender died in the 45th minute. Doctors reached him in the parking lot and took him to the hospital, but his injuries were fatal.

Humberto Muñoz Castro, the bodyguard of the Galleon brothers, was accused of murder and is said to have fired the shot, repeating the same line as the two drug dealers: “Thank you for scoring that goal.”

That return goal deprived the Colombians of a playoff berth and cost the life of defender Andres Escobar.

Some still suspect that the killer was a security guard and believe he took responsibility for the shooting to divert suspicion from two powerful drug dealers.

Humberto Muñoz, Escobar’s killer, was sentenced to 43 years in prison, of which he served only 11 years and was released on parole, fueling rumors of sponsorship from high-ranking drug mafia leaders.

As for the Colombian national football team, after that tragedy, they qualified for the 1998 World Cup in France, but again failed to qualify from their group, and local media wrote that team members “are afraid to play after Escobar’s murder, and among them there are those who refused the invitation to play in the line-up.

Source: RT