Narcoball: Love, Death and Football in Escobar's Colombia

Paperback Published on: 05/06/2025
Price: £12.99
Free UK delivery on orders over £25, otherwise £2.99
In stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Make and edit your lists in your account
Check click & collect stock near you
Collect today: Pay in shop
In stock
Usually dispatched within 1-2 days
Check click & collect stock near you
Collect today: Pay in shop

Synopsis

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 Andrés 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.

Publisher information

  • Publisher: Octopus Publishing Group
  • ISBN: 9781788405256
  • Number of pages: 304
  • Dimensions: 196 x 126 x 24 mm
  • Weight: 220g
  • Languages: English

Customer Reviews

View all
Narcoball
A warts-and-all testimony of the power and influence the drugs cartels and over Columbian football
Here we have a football book, which is also a true crime book, one so outlandish and absurd that if it had been filmed as a piece of fiction it would have ... READ MORE
Peter Fleming
This reviewer received a free of charge product for review.