NESTLED IN THE Aburra Valley, Medellin’s Estadio Atanasio Girardot is a stunning setting for a football match, even when the action on the field falls far short of the majesty of the surrounding mountains.
Home to current Colombian champions Atletico Nacional and local rivals Medellin, the Girardot is one of the most famous stadiums in a league that has lost much of its lustre. While the Cafeteros charmed the world with their performances in Brazil this summer, the league where they started their careers is now a nursery for young talent and a graveyard of unfulfilled promise.
While the league’s reputation is on the slide Medellin, the Colombian city once synonymous with Pablo Escobar, the world’s most infamous drug trafficker, has worked hard to improve its image in the 20 years since his death. Once known as the murder capital of the world, this city of two-and-a-half million people earlier this month welcomed thousands of visitors for its annual flower festival, the Feria de las Flores. This year’s finale, a parade of huge, intricate flower arrangements carried on the backs of their creators, featured an entry inspired by James Rodriguez.
The flower arrangement dedicated to James Rodriguez. Mikey Stafford / TheScore.ie
Mikey Stafford / TheScore.ie / TheScore.ie
James, the Colombia attacker who is due to make his La Liga debut for Real Madrid tomorrow, played 30 games as a precocious teenager for Envigado before joining Banfield of Argentina at the age of 17 before moving to Porto.
Radamel Falcao, James’ former Monaco team-mate, who may be joining him at the Bernabeu, made his debut for Lanceros Boyaca at just 13 but less than two years later he also moved to Argentina and River Plate before joining Atletico Madrid via Porto.
Of the 20 outfield players in Jose Pekerman’s World Cup squad only one, Alexander Mejia of Nacional, is playing in Colombia’s Liga Postobon.
***
Straight after the parade the two most successful teams in Colombian football, Nacional and Millonarios, met at the Girardot for Colombia’s Super Clasico. Unlike the flowers, the match failed to blossom and after a poor, scoreless first half ‘El Verde de la Montaña’ blew away their 10-man Bogota rivals 5-0 in the second half.
Nacional’s supporters, a riot of green and white throughout, reached new levels of fanaticism in the 73rd minute when Edwin Cardona made it 3-0 with a 30-yard screamer into the top corner.
By this stage Millonarios looked a very poor side but there was no travelling support to offer either encouragement or chastisement as the Bogota club’s fans are banned from travelling to Medellin due to the threat of violence that still plagues Colombian football.
It was crime and violence of a more organised nature that funded the golden age of football in this South American country. At the height of ‘Narco Soccer’ in the late 1980s and early ’90s, the cartels that were waging war on the streets of Colombia were also bankrolling rival teams with drug money.
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Nacional were backed by Escobar, America de Cali by his enemies the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers of the Cali Cartel, while Millonarios were the team of Escobar’s ally in Bogota, Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, also known as ‘El Mexicano’.
The pinnacle was reached in 1989 when Nacional defeated Olimpia of Paraguay on penalties to win their first and only Copa Libertadores with a team featuring Colombia internationals Leonel Alvarez, Andres Escobar, Rene Higuita, Gabriel Gomez and Luis Fernando Herrera.
It is hard to imagine these stars of Los Cafeteros‘ ill-fated 1994 World Cup campaign staying with Atletico Nacional without the support of Escobar.
Both shot dead by the authorities, it’s a long time since Escobar and El Mexicano were their clubs’ chief benefactors. Nacional and Millonarios both sported the logos of soft drinks companies on their jerseys, Postobon and Pepsi respectively, and the purveyors of carbonated sugar water cannot offer the same kind of support as billionaire drug lords.
Juan Pablo Angel started his career with his hometown club Nacional before moving on to River Plate, Aston Villa and the MLS. The 38-year-old former Colombia international retired last month having spent the last 18 months of his career back where he started, but Angel is the exception that proves the rule that Colombian football is an export — rather than an import — economy.
***
At €80 million James’ move to Real was the fourth highest transfer in history; the 23-year-old has been the subject of switches worth €125m in the past two summers following his move from Porto to AS Monaco a little over 12 months ago.
Along with his compatriot and former team-mate in France, Falcao, who moved to the Principality from Atletico Madrid for €60m last year, James’ skyrocketing value confirms the rising stock of Colombian football.
Porto’s Juan Fernando Quintero, Fernando Cuadrado of Fiorentina and Inter Milan’s Fredy Guarin are among the most coveted members of the South Americans’ World Cup squad, which were beaten 2-1 by Brazil in a hard-fought and controversial quarter-final in Fortaleza.
Freddy Guarin: one of Colombia's star names. AP / Press Association Images
AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images
Nacional’s Mejia did not play in that game, nor did substitute goalkeepers Camilo Vargas and Faryd Mondragon, the only other squad members employed by Liga Postobon clubs.
As one disillusioned football fan in Medellin described it, “the good leave young and those left behind are no good, or if they are any good, they’re lazy.”
Only one Colombian side, Once Caldes in 2004, have won the Copa Libertadores after Nacional made the breakthrough in 1989.
Since the demise of ‘Narco Soccer’, which coincided with the brutal dismantling of the infamous cartels in the mid nineties, Colombian club football has struggled to make an impact on a continental level.
Nacional were beaten on penalties at the semi-final stage by Olimpia in 1990 and ’91 before reaching the final in 1995, where they were beaten 4-2 by Gremio. Their subsequent high water mark was this year’s quarter-final defeat to defending champions Atletico Mineiro of Brazil.
***
A soft drinks company supplanting Escobar as the primary backer of the country’s most popular team is just one way in which Medellin is reimagining its dark past.
La Catedral, the luxury prison Escobar built for himself in the mountains above the city is now a monastery, the luxury apartment block built for his family and bombed by his enemies was for a time home to the offices of the district attorney, his ranch is now a theme park. The city have converted a men’s prison into a library and there are plans to turn a defunct women’s jail into a university.
It is little wonder Medellin beat off competition from New York and Tel Aviv last year to claim the title of the world’s most innovative city. This once infamous place is now a beautiful city of well-thought out public spaces, green buildings and wide-ranging social projects, including the world’s first mass transit cable car system which links the poorest barrios to the rest of the city.
Pablo Escobar, left, and Jorge Luis Ochoa at a bullfight in Medellin in 1984. AP / Press Association Images
AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images
It was in these impoverished areas where Escobar drew his greatest support, building houses and football pitches for the poorest in Colombian society. It was people from these barrios who thronged in their thousands to Cementario Jardines Montesacro for the drug lord’s funeral after he was gunned down by police in 1993.
A campaign of bombing and political assassinations had alienated the vast majority of Colombian society by the time of his death. As tour guide Juan Uribe puts it: ‘No one from Medellin has a relative not affected by Escobar. Everyone has some reason to hate this guy.’
Uribe’s own nephew was killed in the crossfire during a gun battle and this might explain why he hid the fact he was operating an Escobar tour from his family for two years. Many similar offerings have subsequently sprung up but in seven years Uribe has had only two Colombians take his tour, and they were researching a college project.
“No one in this city wants anything to do with this guy,” said Uribe at the start of his tour, which takes in the criminal’s apartment building, the house where he was shot, his grave and the scenes of various atrocities committed by his ruthless Medellin Cartel.
We drove past Estadio Girardot but did not stop. Uribe, like the rest of Medellin, does not want to dredge up the link between Colombia’s most popular football team and their most notorious historical figure.
That cord was cut on the morning of July 2 1994, when the city’s most beloved son Andres Escobar (no relation) was shot dead — just six days after scoring the own goal that ended the highly fancied Colombia’s involvement in USA ’94.
Mikey with tour guide Juan Aribe at the grave of infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar. Adelle Hughes / TheScore.ie
Adelle Hughes / TheScore.ie / TheScore.ie
The central defender was set to join AC Milan from Nacional following the tournament but was shot six times in the back after an argument outside El Indio nightclub, in his home town.
It is obvious he is still in the city’s thoughts. From the statue erected in his honour, to the T-Shirts and flags that grace the Girardot on matchdays and the framed newspaper cuttings that grace the walls of the Five Doors pub in the Poblado neighbourhood, where he spent his last afternoon alive drinking with his friend Eduardo Rojo Salazar.
Pablo Escobar was dead over six months at this stage but his namesake’s murder was seen by most as a direct consequence of the cycle of violence started by the Medellin Cartel.
It took Nacional 11 years to win a league title after Andres Escobar’s death and they have added seven since in the most successful period in the club’s domestic history.
They may not be scaling the same heights they reached during the reign of ‘Narco Soccer’ but much like their picturesque stadium and the city they call home, they have found peace in the valley of Colombian club football.
Football in Colombia: what happened next when the drug money dried up?
Mikey Stafford reports from Medellin, Colombia
NESTLED IN THE Aburra Valley, Medellin’s Estadio Atanasio Girardot is a stunning setting for a football match, even when the action on the field falls far short of the majesty of the surrounding mountains.
Home to current Colombian champions Atletico Nacional and local rivals Medellin, the Girardot is one of the most famous stadiums in a league that has lost much of its lustre. While the Cafeteros charmed the world with their performances in Brazil this summer, the league where they started their careers is now a nursery for young talent and a graveyard of unfulfilled promise.
While the league’s reputation is on the slide Medellin, the Colombian city once synonymous with Pablo Escobar, the world’s most infamous drug trafficker, has worked hard to improve its image in the 20 years since his death. Once known as the murder capital of the world, this city of two-and-a-half million people earlier this month welcomed thousands of visitors for its annual flower festival, the Feria de las Flores. This year’s finale, a parade of huge, intricate flower arrangements carried on the backs of their creators, featured an entry inspired by James Rodriguez.
James, the Colombia attacker who is due to make his La Liga debut for Real Madrid tomorrow, played 30 games as a precocious teenager for Envigado before joining Banfield of Argentina at the age of 17 before moving to Porto.
Radamel Falcao, James’ former Monaco team-mate, who may be joining him at the Bernabeu, made his debut for Lanceros Boyaca at just 13 but less than two years later he also moved to Argentina and River Plate before joining Atletico Madrid via Porto.
Of the 20 outfield players in Jose Pekerman’s World Cup squad only one, Alexander Mejia of Nacional, is playing in Colombia’s Liga Postobon.
***
Straight after the parade the two most successful teams in Colombian football, Nacional and Millonarios, met at the Girardot for Colombia’s Super Clasico. Unlike the flowers, the match failed to blossom and after a poor, scoreless first half ‘El Verde de la Montaña’ blew away their 10-man Bogota rivals 5-0 in the second half.
Nacional’s supporters, a riot of green and white throughout, reached new levels of fanaticism in the 73rd minute when Edwin Cardona made it 3-0 with a 30-yard screamer into the top corner.
By this stage Millonarios looked a very poor side but there was no travelling support to offer either encouragement or chastisement as the Bogota club’s fans are banned from travelling to Medellin due to the threat of violence that still plagues Colombian football.
It was crime and violence of a more organised nature that funded the golden age of football in this South American country. At the height of ‘Narco Soccer’ in the late 1980s and early ’90s, the cartels that were waging war on the streets of Colombia were also bankrolling rival teams with drug money.
Nacional were backed by Escobar, America de Cali by his enemies the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers of the Cali Cartel, while Millonarios were the team of Escobar’s ally in Bogota, Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, also known as ‘El Mexicano’.
The pinnacle was reached in 1989 when Nacional defeated Olimpia of Paraguay on penalties to win their first and only Copa Libertadores with a team featuring Colombia internationals Leonel Alvarez, Andres Escobar, Rene Higuita, Gabriel Gomez and Luis Fernando Herrera.
It is hard to imagine these stars of Los Cafeteros‘ ill-fated 1994 World Cup campaign staying with Atletico Nacional without the support of Escobar.
Both shot dead by the authorities, it’s a long time since Escobar and El Mexicano were their clubs’ chief benefactors. Nacional and Millonarios both sported the logos of soft drinks companies on their jerseys, Postobon and Pepsi respectively, and the purveyors of carbonated sugar water cannot offer the same kind of support as billionaire drug lords.
Juan Pablo Angel started his career with his hometown club Nacional before moving on to River Plate, Aston Villa and the MLS. The 38-year-old former Colombia international retired last month having spent the last 18 months of his career back where he started, but Angel is the exception that proves the rule that Colombian football is an export — rather than an import — economy.
***
At €80 million James’ move to Real was the fourth highest transfer in history; the 23-year-old has been the subject of switches worth €125m in the past two summers following his move from Porto to AS Monaco a little over 12 months ago.
Along with his compatriot and former team-mate in France, Falcao, who moved to the Principality from Atletico Madrid for €60m last year, James’ skyrocketing value confirms the rising stock of Colombian football.
Porto’s Juan Fernando Quintero, Fernando Cuadrado of Fiorentina and Inter Milan’s Fredy Guarin are among the most coveted members of the South Americans’ World Cup squad, which were beaten 2-1 by Brazil in a hard-fought and controversial quarter-final in Fortaleza.
Nacional’s Mejia did not play in that game, nor did substitute goalkeepers Camilo Vargas and Faryd Mondragon, the only other squad members employed by Liga Postobon clubs.
As one disillusioned football fan in Medellin described it, “the good leave young and those left behind are no good, or if they are any good, they’re lazy.”
Only one Colombian side, Once Caldes in 2004, have won the Copa Libertadores after Nacional made the breakthrough in 1989.
Since the demise of ‘Narco Soccer’, which coincided with the brutal dismantling of the infamous cartels in the mid nineties, Colombian club football has struggled to make an impact on a continental level.
Nacional were beaten on penalties at the semi-final stage by Olimpia in 1990 and ’91 before reaching the final in 1995, where they were beaten 4-2 by Gremio. Their subsequent high water mark was this year’s quarter-final defeat to defending champions Atletico Mineiro of Brazil.
***
A soft drinks company supplanting Escobar as the primary backer of the country’s most popular team is just one way in which Medellin is reimagining its dark past.
La Catedral, the luxury prison Escobar built for himself in the mountains above the city is now a monastery, the luxury apartment block built for his family and bombed by his enemies was for a time home to the offices of the district attorney, his ranch is now a theme park. The city have converted a men’s prison into a library and there are plans to turn a defunct women’s jail into a university.
It is little wonder Medellin beat off competition from New York and Tel Aviv last year to claim the title of the world’s most innovative city. This once infamous place is now a beautiful city of well-thought out public spaces, green buildings and wide-ranging social projects, including the world’s first mass transit cable car system which links the poorest barrios to the rest of the city.
It was in these impoverished areas where Escobar drew his greatest support, building houses and football pitches for the poorest in Colombian society. It was people from these barrios who thronged in their thousands to Cementario Jardines Montesacro for the drug lord’s funeral after he was gunned down by police in 1993.
A campaign of bombing and political assassinations had alienated the vast majority of Colombian society by the time of his death. As tour guide Juan Uribe puts it: ‘No one from Medellin has a relative not affected by Escobar. Everyone has some reason to hate this guy.’
Uribe’s own nephew was killed in the crossfire during a gun battle and this might explain why he hid the fact he was operating an Escobar tour from his family for two years. Many similar offerings have subsequently sprung up but in seven years Uribe has had only two Colombians take his tour, and they were researching a college project.
“No one in this city wants anything to do with this guy,” said Uribe at the start of his tour, which takes in the criminal’s apartment building, the house where he was shot, his grave and the scenes of various atrocities committed by his ruthless Medellin Cartel.
We drove past Estadio Girardot but did not stop. Uribe, like the rest of Medellin, does not want to dredge up the link between Colombia’s most popular football team and their most notorious historical figure.
That cord was cut on the morning of July 2 1994, when the city’s most beloved son Andres Escobar (no relation) was shot dead — just six days after scoring the own goal that ended the highly fancied Colombia’s involvement in USA ’94.
The central defender was set to join AC Milan from Nacional following the tournament but was shot six times in the back after an argument outside El Indio nightclub, in his home town.
It is obvious he is still in the city’s thoughts. From the statue erected in his honour, to the T-Shirts and flags that grace the Girardot on matchdays and the framed newspaper cuttings that grace the walls of the Five Doors pub in the Poblado neighbourhood, where he spent his last afternoon alive drinking with his friend Eduardo Rojo Salazar.
Pablo Escobar was dead over six months at this stage but his namesake’s murder was seen by most as a direct consequence of the cycle of violence started by the Medellin Cartel.
It took Nacional 11 years to win a league title after Andres Escobar’s death and they have added seven since in the most successful period in the club’s domestic history.
They may not be scaling the same heights they reached during the reign of ‘Narco Soccer’ but much like their picturesque stadium and the city they call home, they have found peace in the valley of Colombian club football.
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