The American cross came hard from the left. The Colombian defender Andres Escobar slid in to cut it out, but the ball hit his boot and flew into his own net.
Colombia's keeper, Oscar Cordoba, recalled Escobar telling him simply: "Go on, take the ball out of the net, get going." But the Colombian team - perhaps the country's best - lost 2-1 to the US and were virtually eliminated in the first round of that World Cup of 1994.
Ten days later, on July 2, in the car park of a nightclub in the Colombian city of Medellín, Escobar was shot dead. His murder has been turned into an allegory of the crazy grip football has over many people. In fact it's a story about Colombia.
Escobar was born to a well-off family in Medellín in 1967. That combination of time and place was a tragedy. Just as the baby was landing in Colombia, so were cocaine and civil conflict. Once one of Latin America's richer countries - with briefly, in the 1950s, perhaps the world's richest football league - Colombia descended fast.
When Escobar was born, Colombian gangs were just starting to smuggle the country's traditional plant of coca, refined into cocaine, to the US. Gradually a Medellín cartel captured much of the trade.
The white powder accounts for at most three per cent of Colombia's economy, but its impact on Colombian life is much bigger than that. Violent gangs invaded society. Each big cartel funded their own football club. The Medellín cartel, led by Pablo Escobar, backed Atlético - the club of his namesake Andres. When Pablo Escobar was buried in 1993 after a shoot-out, an Atletico flag was draped over his coffin.
Andres Escobar would have known the drugs kingpins - everyone in Colombian football had to - but that was not his world. Unlike most Colombian players he was a middle-class boy. Courteous, serious, soft-skinned, and devoutly Catholic, he was known as "el caballero del futból", "the gentleman of football".
He seems to have accepted his own goal calmly. He wrote in his column in the upmarket newspaper El Tiempo: "We simply hit a low. See you soon, because life doesn't end here."
He was wrong. Nobody knows exactly what happened in that Medellín car park at 3am, but it appears that Escobar got into a quarrel about his own goal with two local "businessmen", the brothers Santiago and Pedro David Gallón Henao. It all ended with their driver and bodyguard, Humberto Muñoz, pumping bullets into Escobar, while, according to one witness, shouting "Goal! Goal!" like a TV commentator.
Muñoz was sentenced to 43 years in jail. He was released after only 11, in 2005, on the grounds of his good behaviour in jail. "Frankly, there is no justice in Colombia," commented Escobar's father.
Most Colombians would agree. Few of them believe this story ends with Muñoz. There are many theories about the murder, but the main one is that a drugs mafia killed Escobar as a punishment for spoiling their football bets. Perhaps the Gallón Henao brothers were involved, but perhaps not.
Fernando Rodriguez Mondragon, whose family ran the Cali drugs cartel, and whose recent book El Hijo del Ajedrecista outlines the links between Colombian drugs and football, says: "A drugs trafficker from Medellín called Cadavid had him murdered. He'd bet US$2million (Dh7.34m) on a Colombian victory against the US. Cadavid was never worried, because he didn't pull the trigger. Here, if you don't kill personally, you're not guilty."
This may be true. Alternatively, it may be one of the infinite Colombian conspiracy theories. In the end, the exact circumstances of the murder are not the point.
The sad fact is that there was nothing extraordinary about Escobar's death. It was just the sort of thing that happens in Colombia.
The player was shot like so many Colombian politicians, judges and ordinary people. When he died, Colombia had the highest homicide rate in the world.
Today, things are only a little better. Colombia's football team - like so many Colombian institutions - has never quite recovered from the violence. Many clubs still get drugs money, though the new drugs barons keep a lower profile than their predecessors. The reported murder rate has halved since 2002, but remains three times higher than the level in Mexico.
What killed Andres Escobar was Colombia.
skuper@thenational.ae
Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
BULKWHIZ PROFILE
Date started: February 2017
Founders: Amira Rashad (CEO), Yusuf Saber (CTO), Mahmoud Sayedahmed (adviser), Reda Bouraoui (adviser)
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce
Size: 50 employees
Funding: approximately $6m
Investors: Beco Capital, Enabling Future and Wain in the UAE; China's MSA Capital; 500 Startups; Faith Capital and Savour Ventures in Kuwait
The five pillars of Islam
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The five pillars of Islam
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
if you go
The flights Fly Dubai, Air Arabia, Emirates, Etihad, and Royal Jordanian all offer direct, three-and-a-half-hour flights from the UAE to the Jordanian capital Amman. Alternatively, from June Fly Dubai will offer a new direct service from Dubai to Aqaba in the south of the country. See the airlines’ respective sites for varying prices or search on reliable price-comparison site Skyscanner.
The trip
Jamie Lafferty was a guest of the Jordan Tourist Board. For more information on adventure tourism in Jordan see Visit Jordan. A number of new and established tour companies offer the chance to go caving, rock-climbing, canyoning, and mountaineering in Jordan. Prices vary depending on how many activities you want to do and how many days you plan to stay in the country. Among the leaders are Terhaal, who offer a two-day canyoning trip from Dh845 per person. If you really want to push your limits, contact the Stronger Team. For a more trek-focused trip, KE Adventure offers an eight-day trip from Dh5,300 per person.
Read more from Mina Al-Oraibi
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
Five famous companies founded by teens
There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
- Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
- Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
- Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
- Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
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