Andrés Escobar
Andrés Escobar Saldarriaga (March 13, 1967 - July 2, 1994) was a Colombian football player, who was shot and killed in Medellin. The motivation for the murder is unclear: some attribute the murder to the own goal that Escobar scored in the 1994 FIFA World Cup against the United States. Another theory is that the his death was unrelated to soccer and was instead the result of a bar fight that left several people wounded.
He was a defender for Colombia in the Football World Cup in 1990 and 1994. His shirt number was 2.
Escobar scored an own goal in a match against the United States on 22 June during the 1994 FIFA World Cup. Stretching to cut out a US cross, he deflected the ball into his own net in the second match of Group A. The USA won the game 2–1, and as a result, Colombia was eliminated from the tournament in the first round.
Death
On July 2, 1994, Escobar was shot outside a bar in a Medellín suburb. According to Escobar's girlfriend, the killer shouted "¡Gooooooooooooool!" (mimicking south american sporting commentators for their calls after a goal is scored) for each of the 12 bullets fired.
The murder was widely believed to be a punishment for the own goal.[1] It is not clear whether the murderer acted on his own initiative, or whether he was sent out by one of the gambling syndicates who had bet large amounts of money on Colombia to win the Cup, or at least qualify for the second round.
The BBC issued an apology the following day after its pundit Alan Hansen commented on another match that "the Argentine defender wants shooting for a mistake like that." [2]
Murderer
Humberto Muñoz Castro was found guilty of Escobar's murder in June 1995 and sentenced to 43 years in prison. Muñoz had been working as a bodyguard.
The sentence was later reduced to 26 years due to his submitting to the ruling penal code in 2001. Muñoz was released on good behavior due to further reductions from prison work and study in 2005 after serving approximately 11 years, in a controversial move.