16. Andrés Escobar, a Colombian professional footballer, was shot dead after scoring an own goal in the 1994 FIFA World Cup
Andrés Escobar Saldarriaga (b. 1967) was a Colombian professional footballer, playing in the position of defender for both his national team and for Atlético Nacional and BSC Young Boys; nicknamed “The Gentleman” for his celebratedly clean playing style and friendly attitude on the pitch, Escobar was the face of Colombian football after having extensively worked to improve the nation’s sporting image abroad.
Selected for the Colombian national squad in the 1994 FIFA World Cup, held in the United States, during Colombia’s game on June 22 against the host nation in the group stages Escobar accidentally deflected a cross from American midfielder John Harkes into his own net. With the game goalless at the time of his mistake, the United States would go on to win the match 2-1 and Colombia would fail to qualify from the group into the knockout rounds; only a single point behind the third-place qualifiers in Group A, the U.S., a draw in the game would have been sufficient for the Colombian campaign to continue and consequently Escobar was widely blamed for the team’s collective failure in the competition.
Returning to his hometown of Medellín, in the early hours of July 2, 1994, Escobar was approached by three men in a parking lot and was shot six times; the assailants allegedly shouted “Goal” after each shot, once for each time the South American football commentator said it during the broadcast. Despite being rushed to a hospital, Escobar died 45 minutes later; in the days before his murder, Escobar had been quoted in Colombian newspapers as saying: “It’s been a most amazing and rare experience. We’ll see each other again soon because life does not end here”. His funeral was attended by more than 120,000 people and Humberto Castro Muñoz, a bodyguard for leading members of a Colombian drug cartel was arrested along with three accomplices; sentenced to 43 years in prison for the murder, Muñoz only served 11 whilst his co-accused were acquitted.