Colombian Soccer and the Drug Lords
In a lawless country, soccer thrives thanks to the drug trade
Cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar with one of his soccer youth clubs. At his height, Escobar laundered money through Atletico Nacional, one of the country's premier professional teams.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Colombia was ravaged by an endless cycle of narco-violence that captured worldwide headlines. Yet, in the midst of this deadly scourge the game thrived…