Diego Maradona and Pablo Escobar: Did they really know each other?

Two weeks ago, the first anniversary of the death of Diego Armando Maradona, considered one of the best footballers in history, with his extraordinary performance on the field, was celebrated.

During his career as a footballer, he played unforgettable games, such as the match against England in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, where he would score ‘La Mano de Dios’ and the ‘Maradonian’ goal, and also when he returned to the Argentina team to play the repechage. against Australia to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the United States.

His legacy would leave several anecdotes, such as having rescued two castaways during their stay at the Barcelona Football Club, or having played a charity game to raise money for the operation of a child in Italy, however, controversial rumors would have also been generated around to FluffLike having played a soccer game with the drug lord Pablo Escobar.

It was rumored for years that Escobar, who was also a great soccer fan, wanted to meet the great Argentine player and for this he called a friendly match. It was 1991, Maradona was serving a penalty of not being able to play soccer for 15 months due to cocaine use, and the most feared drug trafficker in the world was held in ‘La Catedral’, a prison that he built just for himself.

The story of the day Pablo Escobar surrendered and his imprisonment in the luxurious Cathedral

According to an article in Diario As, Maradona, in an interview that an Argentine radio station did with him in 2014, whose name is not mentioned, that you received an invitation from an “important” person to play a friendly match, and if he attended, they would pay him a huge sum of money.

“In ’91, Guillermo Coppola told me that a very important person from Colombia wanted to pay me a huge sum to play a friendly match, with some footballers like René Higuita. When I went to Medellín and they took me to a jail surrounded by thousands of soldiers, I said: ‘What the fuck is going on, are they going to put me in jail?’ When I entered that place it looked like a luxury hotel in Dubai, there they introduced me to it, they told me: ‘Diego, he’s the boss.’ I greeted him and the guy was very respectful, quite cold, but he was kind to me. But since I do nothing about news and television, I didn’t really know who he was, ”the Argentine star allegedly said.

In that interview Maradona would have said that the prison in which Escobar was being held was better than a luxury hotel in Dubai and the sum he received for participating in the football match was astronomical, “He took me into a kind of office where he told me that he admired my football, and that he felt identified with me, because like me, he came out of poverty to succeed”.

Maradona denies the rumor in 2019

The “Cosmic Kite” ended the rumors sharply in an interview he offered to the Líbero de TyC Sports in 2019. In the dialogue, the historic 10 Argentine was questioned about the alleged relationship with Pablo Escobar, which he denied.

For years it was commented that this meeting had happened and that the footballer was also contacted through Bilardo, who directed América de Cali and he had relations with the Cali cartel.

“I did not go to the Naples farm, I swear to you by my old lady that I didn’t even know him. He never gave me anything and the truth was what he did was horrible. For everyone and me, that I was taking (drugs). Why are you going to lend the drawer of dollars, why else, share it with people. When he couldn’t fill the house he owned with more dollars, he began to build houses for the poor, but not because it was good, “he said.

Maradona, who had a serious problem with drugs, in that interview sent a message to the youngest to flee from them. “To the boys I say: No to drugs! They are not you, you do not have participation with society, you do not have participation with the family. I learned that from my old man, because I am not rude, I am poorly learned, at home I was educated with love. When I took falopa I had nothing “, he stressed. (D)