The story of Andres Escobar is perhaps one of the most tragic that soccer has ever witnessed. A star defender for the Colombia national team and Medellin giants Atletico Nacional, he was just 27 years old when he was gunned down in his homeland after the 1994 World Cup in the United States.
Escobar was blamed for his country's group-stage elimination. It was his own goal in the first half of their 2-1 loss to the U.S. in their second game that gave the South Americans an insurmountable challenge to stay in the competition, despite beating Switzerland in their third match.
Less than a week after their exit, Escobar was killed outside of a nightclub in Medellin. The man who was subsequently arrested for and admitted to the murder was Humberto Castro Munoz, a bodyguard and driver for two notorious drug traffickers in the large Colombian city in what was yet another collision between Colombian football and the cocaine business. The two worlds had essentially merged together as drug cartels became heavily involved, and the sport was ravaged with corruption. Even Atletico Nacional were at one point funded by world-famous drug baron Pablo Escobar.
While the mix between narcotraffickers and football had resulted in many deaths, the assassination of Escobar was one that shook the world, and it is still not truly known why, exactly, the centerback was murdered.