Through the Netflix series Narcos, the Indian television audience was introduced to the Colombian drug-lord, Pablo Escobar. Escobar’s life and times have since then become a hot topic of conversation. For the football fans ensconced within these numbers of Narcos’ followers, Escobar’s legacy is all about one thing – the rise of Colombian football, specifically pertaining to one club, Atletico Nacional.
Nicknamed Rey de Copas (King of Cups), the rise of Nacional’s presence in Colombian football was directly a result of the peak of notoriety attained by Escobar, from the 1980s to the 1990s. Escobar funded the club that hailed from the same place as he grew up, Medellin.
While football was Escobar’s passion, his channeling of investment to the Nacional yielded them some noteworthy results. One of which was the club’s win of the Copa Libertadores in 1989. It was the first time in the history of the tournament that a Colombian club had won the title and this success also impacted the Colombian national team’s performances as well.
Until Escobar’s death at the hands of the Colombian police in 1993, Colombian football looked to be undisputable, even going on a 34-match winning streak that started in 1991. Post Escobar’s death, the fortunes of Colombian football suffered massively, with their rankings freefalling from fourth to 34th.
It took till the turn of the century for the team’s and Atletico Nacional’s results to improve and it’s only now that the state of Colombian football looks to have stabilised. Nacional is scheduled to play in the forthcoming FIFA Club World Cup in Japan and the Colombian national team reached the quarter-finals of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Irrespective of their current advancements, the memories of Narco-football however refuse to fade away from Colombian footballing history.