Debut

Debut. Sotil’s unhappy story ended in 1986 and in the same year started another story with unhappy end. Again, bright beginning – Andres Escobar Saldarriaga debuted this year for Atletico Nacional.
Like Sotil, Escobar debuted at 19 and immediately was noticed. Like Sotil, he quickly became national team player. Like Sotil, the newcomer was blessed with good teammates – one of them the flamboyant goalkeeper Rene Hiquita, already known to the world. Only Sotil was a striker and the Colombian – central defender.
Escobar was unusual case not only for South America – he did not come from the working class, but from the middle class – and not just from middle class, but form upper middle class: his father was banker. The son was highly educated as well and technically did not need to play professional football, having much better options with other professions. But football is football and even father Darrio Escobar was not immune to its charms: he founded organization giving young boys the opportunity to play football instead of living on the streets and had no objections to his own sons becoming professional players. Which they did and Andres and Santiago played together for Atletico Nacional. This was not the best time in Colombia and particularly in the city of Medellin – it was the time of the drug cartels and political violence, a time of practically civil war and general violence and lawlessness. In terms of football, it was the time Colombia was blessed with talented generation of players, gradually lifting up Colombian football from its relative obscurity. Escobar was not only part of the improvement, but unusual part too: in the brutal football practiced in the 1980s and the general brutality of Colombian life in the same decade, he was rather odd – he played clean football, eventually earning the nickname El Caballero del Futbol (The Gentleman of Football) and he was tireless advocate of good causes and things Colombian. As far as it is known, Escobar had nothing to do with corrupt practices and drug cartels – staying clean in such atmosphere was really a heroic task, may be possible only because of Escobar’s family background: he did not need money from playing football, he had other options in life, unlike the typical professional footballer coming from poverty. Plenty of talent too, so Andres Escobar quickly established himself – practically in his very first season and by 1988 he was playing for the national team as well. Bright talent and positive example as well – and all that came to end in most gruesome way on July 1, 1994. But that is still far ahead in the future – in 1986 a new star emerged, something to enjoy.