The Two Escobars

The film The Two Escobar’s, directed by Jeff and Michael Zimbalist, is a documentary about “narco-soccer”, which was a time period in Columbia when it was prevalent for drug kingpins to use soccer clubs to launder their money. One of the most infamous kingpins was Pablo Escobar. Pablo was typically known as a murderer in Columbia, but did have one passion in life, and that was soccer. The other Escobar, Andres, who had no blood relation to Pablo, was the star defensive player for Columbia’s soccer team. One thing these two had in common, besides their last name, was that the people in Columbia disliked them because of difficult circumstances they were put in. The people in Columbia viewed soccer as a way to unite their country. Although soccer wasn’t popular in the nation yet, Andres and his teammates were determined to become the best of the best. Since everyone was generally poor, the team did not have enough money to hire an international trainer, so, the chances of them becoming a renowned soccer team were extremely slim. However, when the drug kingpins used soccer clubs to launder their money, and the cocaine trade changed everything. Since Pablo was becoming increasingly rich from the drug trade in the soccer clubs, he built soccer fields around different neighborhoods, and that is how the players on the Columbia soccer team really learned how to play, and would practice on them. Even when running from authorities, Pablo would have his radio on hand to listen to the game. Everything was looking up for the two Escobar’s, and the Columbian soccer team even made it to the World Cup! Things really started taking a turn for the worst when the drug trafficking got so horrific in Columbia; the government even passed a law that abolished extradition. Pablo then surrendered, and was sent to prison. While in prison, he had soccer fields built for him, and had the Columbian soccer team often play there. Pablo thought it had so much power; he had killed a