Narcoball
Love, Death and Football in Escobar’s Colombia
By David Arrowsmith

Lots of us have heard of the infamous, Pablo Escobar, the Columbian drug lord, but who knew he had an obsession of football? I certainly did not. Narcoball is a fascinating book that encompasses this and more as it shows a different side of his life and influence… You don’t need to be into football to be into this book.
Check out the blurb below and then my review as I kick off the Random T. Tours blog tour.

Blurb

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. With untold insights from the players and politicians, 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 rival. 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 Andres 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.

Review

Narcoball, I feel is fascinating, whether you’re a football fan or not, just for the mere fact that, if like me, you’ve heard of Pablo Escobar and realise that this is something different being told about him or if you’re interested in nefarious behaviours within communities and political leadership. Arrowsmith has tackled such wide-ranging subjects very well, without losing sight of the sport and Escobar. He’s created a gripping, knowledgeable read.

There’s a lot of money and deals to be had in both drugs and football. Narcoball, illustrates that fact. Not all football is equal, it would seem. Players take it all very seriously as they kick to score, to get their team on top. In Escobar’s time, it truly was a matter of life or death, in very real terms, and not just the innocent way the phrase is often used. There were real deaths!

When I was reading this, I got the feeling of darkness and fear, over-hanging. It is written in a way that holds your attention from start to finish. It makes you look differently at sport, and in this case, football and how it can, in the likes of Columbia’s case, intermingle in politics, in a way I hadn’t realised, nor thought of before, when we all see politicians today, gleefully saying how they cheer on “their team”.

The author has, intelligently put Escobar’s nefarious activities into context, so you can get a sense of what else is going on within Columbia, what sort of place it was in the 90’s and what the nearby US was doing. It gives you a sense of the politics and how it seemingly worked and what the awareness was of how far drug lords and cartels were doing and how much greater and wider their activities were than just getting people hooked on drugs.

I felt I learnt a lot reading this book and just how far-reaching Pablo Escobar’s influence went and more about his rise, how he rose to the heady heights of infamy, as he did and to his ultimate downfall.

I highly recommend this very eye-opening book.