telegraph21 Interview with Michael Zimbalist, Director/Producer of The Two Escobars

[SantiagodeCali55]

Football in Colombia didn't die when Andres and Pablo Escobar died, it stopped when there was no one to replace Valderrama. This documentary does nothing to highlight that. Valderrama was South American player of the year on a couple of occassions, this is during an era when Maradona, Batistuta, Romario, Francescoli ruled. That was Colombia in that era. He was the engine behind that, unfortunately. I write unfortunately, because it should never be one man, but that was him for Colombia.

[SantiagodeCali55]

this is unfortunate, because although this is a good documentary, it doesn't properly establish the real foundation for that great Colombia soccer era ('87 - '94). While Narco-futbol did completely impact the domestic league and financed the league's ability to keep its good players, that can't really be translated to the National Team.

[SantiagodeCali55]

The National team were a collection of Colombians. Had narco-futbol not existed, these players would've still matured, but would've played their soccer abroad, like most South Americans do. Argentinians, Brazilians, Uruguayans, the best of them play abroad. Colombia's national team excellence in that epoch is founded not on Narco-futbol, but on a style of play that revolved around one epicenter of genius- Carlos "El Pibe" Valderrama