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Maria Ester Escobar was in Los Angeles on that fateful day, 2 July 1994, and will never
forget the moment she found out the news. It was in the small hours of the morning, the
sort of time when the telephone ringing is often synonymous with an emergency.
She took a while to pick up and had a lump in her throat by the time she did so. On the
other end of the line was Colombia's veteran midfielder Gabriel BarrabΓ‘s Gomez and, his
voice trembling, he confirmed her worst fears: "Maria, something terrible has happened.
Andres… Andres has been killed."
forget the moment she found out the news. It was in the small hours of the morning, the
sort of time when the telephone ringing is often synonymous with an emergency.
She took a while to pick up and had a lump in her throat by the time she did so. On the
other end of the line was Colombia's veteran midfielder Gabriel BarrabΓ‘s Gomez and, his
voice trembling, he confirmed her worst fears: "Maria, something terrible has happened.
Andres… Andres has been killed."
For the football world, Andres was a talented defender who had impressed for Medellin side
Atletico Nacional and the Colombian national team. But for Maria Ester and the rest of the
Escobar family, the 27-year-old was much more than that: "He was our little brother, our
pride and joy," she tells FIFA.com in Rio de Janeiro, an unmistakable twinge of nostalgia
in her tone.
