Drugs, Murder, And The World Cup Part 1: The Narco History Of Colombian Football
It Was What It Was : The Football History Podcast
The Overlap
4.9 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome back to It Was What It Was, the football history podcast. In this first part of our three-part special on Colombian football and the tragedy of Andrés Escobar.
Co-hosts Jonathan Wilson and Rob Draper explore the extraordinary history of Colombian football leading up to the 1994 World Cup. This episode covers the intersection of football and narco-culture, Pablo Escobar's involvement in the sport, the tense rivalry with Argentina, and the dramatic road to qualification culminating in the legendary 5-0 victory at El Monumental.
You can listen to this episode ad-free over on our Patreon - Follow the link here - or go to Patreon.com and search for It Was What It Was. You will also get access to our World Cup countdown, magazine retrospectives and bonus episodes as well as a monthly Q&A with Rob and Jonathan.
01:39 The El Dorado League & Early Colombian Football
10:11 Francisco Maturana: The Dentist Who Revolutionised Colombian Football
19:02 Maturana's Influences: Total Football Meets South American Flair
27:43 Navigating Narco-Culture: Pablo Escobar
36:11 René Higuita: The Sweeper-Keeper & The Kidnapping
41:25 Building Rivalry: Colombia vs Argentina at Copa América 1993
48:12 World Cup Qualifying Begins: Asprilla's Controversies
54:03 The Road to Buenos Aires: Setting Up the Five-Nil
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to It Was What It Was. And before we begin this episode, we've got some exciting news. |
| 0:05.7 | We certainly do, Rob, on Friday the 6th of March, at midday, that's UK time. We're going to be doing a live Q&A on the Patreon for our subscribers. So please head over there. And if you've got any questions on our episodes or anything else to do with football history you can ask |
| 0:21.1 | there you can ask them on advance or you can ask them live at the time even if you can't |
| 0:25.5 | attend live we will try to answer your questions there's a forum there and the link is |
| 0:30.5 | in the description and don't forget to sign up to our patron because on there's all sorts |
| 0:35.3 | bonus episodes on there's going to be one on col. There's going to be one on Colombia coming soon. |
| 0:38.9 | There's one on Hooliganism. |
| 0:40.5 | There's another one on Pep Guardiola. |
| 0:43.2 | And also there are episodes looking back at shoot editions of the past and our World Cup |
| 0:48.5 | countdown, of course, going through Jonathan's book. |
| 0:51.1 | And don't forget that everything on the Patreon is ad-free. So sign up to the |
| 0:55.9 | Patreon and we hope you enjoy this current episode. |
| 1:05.8 | I would say that Colombia has always produced players, players who I believe were some of the |
| 1:10.7 | best in the world and would still be today. This talent has always produced players, players who I believe were some of the best in the |
| 1:11.2 | world and would still be today. This talent has always been around, but maybe they didn't |
| 1:16.5 | have the organisation or perhaps they were lacking an identity, a Colombian identity, succeed. |
| 1:22.4 | That's because we've always wanted to bring foreigners into our game. Argentinians, Yugoslavs, Brazilians, Europeans, |
| 1:30.3 | and in always looking at others, we ignored ourselves. Welcome to It Was What It Was, the Football |
| 1:36.3 | History podcast. And today we're embarking on a mini-series, which really is an epic and tragic tale, |
| 1:43.1 | one of the most significant incidents, I think, |
| 1:46.1 | in World Cup history ever. It's a terrible murder of Andrew Escobar, the Colombian defender |
| 1:51.8 | shot after scoring an own goal against the United States during the World Cup in the United |
... |
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