Narcoball Love, Death and Football in Escobar’s Colombia by David Arrowsmith

Pablo Escobar had one obsession. Not drugs, not money, not power… football.

Narcoball uncovers the incredible story of Colombian football during the early 1990s – shaped by drug lords, rivalries, and ambition. It uncovers a football empire backed by cartels – where victory was a currency of its own, and defeat, a matter of life and death.

This is a different story of Pablo Escobar and his rivals. A tale of clandestine deals that reshaped Medellin’s football clubs, where fortunes were won and lost. It unveils the extraordinary bonds that Escobar forged with football’s luminaries and why his influence reached unprecedented heights, leading to the astonishing 5-0 victory over Argentina in Buenos Aires, the murder of referees, and the ruthless coercion of officials culminating in the killing of Andres Escobar – the Colombian defender who paid the ultimate price for an own goal in the 1994 World Cup. It is also an examination of a people’s relationship with both the sport and the nefarious leaders that brought both pride and terror to their communities.

Set against the U.S War on Drugs, international threats, and government clampdowns, this is a gripping exploration of Colombian club football under Escobar’s rise and fall.