Faustino Aspilla, former Newcastle and Colombia target man says he tried everything he could to persuade the gunman who tried to kill Paraguayan goalkeeper Chilavert from carrying out the act.
The ugly incident took place in a World Cup Qualifying match and remains one of the darkest moments in Colombia’s history.
According to Asprilla, the hitman called his hotel room right after the match and promised to make the Paraguayan goalie and offer he couldn’t refuse. All these because the hitman and most of Colombians blamed the opposition goalie for making the referee send offAsprilla.
In reminding the hitman that he was not helping snuffing out his object of murder that he was instead just putting a dent to an already dented image, of drugs and gangsters of Colombia, the former Newcastle striker’s plea managed not to fall on deaf ears.
Andres Escobar, a former Colombian defender was shot three years earlier and Chilavert’s death would have piled up the negativity with which the rest of the world view Colombia.
Escobar was shot in Medellin for scoring the own-goal that saw his country eliminated from the world cup and the plot sociopath plotting to have Chilavert whacked begins to make sense in a way given that Colombia at that time, seemed to be the kind of country where people could whip out a gun at you in the middle of the street because they didn’t like your face.
Faustino score some memorable goals for Colombia throughout his playing days but perhaps his most heroic act is in stopping his fellow countryman from whacking a Paraguay international.
The world has changed and such hostile climates are having little to nothing representation it doesn’t matter how the media tries to manipulate into information overload.