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Gareca América de Cali Escobar story

Colombian football in the 1980s was stuck between the Medellín Cartel and the Cali Cartel, and América de Cali sat right in the middle of it. The Rodríguez Orejuela brothers were financing the club, and that money made them a direct enemy of Pablo Escobar. The story that later circulated is that Escobar considered putting a car bomb on the team bus, and the reason was payback for an attack on his family. That plan never got carried out. What gets me is that several América players had no idea any of this was going on around them. Ricardo Gareca, El Tigre, was one of them. Years later he told Diario Olé that he only found out about the whole thing when a documentary came out. "I knew nothing. I only found out about this once the documentary came out. Nothing happened during my time as a player; no one ever threatened me." So they were supposedly in that much danger and the guys on the bus didn't even know. Wild.

2h

Footy News@Footynews

Follow

Gareca América de Cali Escobar story

Colombian football in the 1980s was stuck between the Medellín Cartel and the Cali Cartel, and América de Cali sat right in the middle of it. The Rodríguez Orejuela brothers were financing the club, and that money made them a direct enemy of Pablo Escobar. The story that later circulated is that Escobar considered putting a car bomb on the team bus, and the reason was payback for an attack on his family. That plan never got carried out. What gets me is that several América players had no idea any of this was going on around them. Ricardo Gareca, El Tigre, was one of them. Years later he told Diario Olé that he only found out about the whole thing when a documentary came out. "I knew nothing. I only found out about this once the documentary came out. Nothing happened during my time as a player; no one ever threatened me." So they were supposedly in that much danger and the guys on the bus didn't even know. Wild.

2h