Why the 2006 street football trophy carried Andrés Escobar's name
The Copa Andrés Escobar was played for in Berlin in July 2006. Who Escobar was, how he died, and why street football chose to remember him.
On Sunday 2 July 2006, Germany’s foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier opened a football tournament on Mariannenplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg. It had nothing to do with the stadiums of the FIFA World Cup being played across the country that summer. Twenty-two teams of young people from social projects on five continents had come to play five-a-side matches of twelve minutes. The prize they were playing for was called the Copa Andrés Escobar.
The date was not a coincidence anyone could miss. Twelve years earlier, on 2 July 1994, the Colombian defender Andrés Escobar had been shot dead in Medellín, days after scoring an own goal at the World Cup in the United States. The streetfootballworld festival 06 was created in his memory.
Who was Andrés Escobar?
Andrés Escobar Saldarriaga was born in Medellín on 13 March 1967. He was a centre-back who spent almost his whole career at Atlético Nacional, apart from a short spell at the Swiss club Young Boys in 1990. With Nacional he won the 1989 Copa Libertadores, the 1989 Copa Interamericana and the 1991 Colombian championship.
He made his debut for Colombia in 1988 and played at the 1989 Copa América, the 1990 World Cup and the 1991 Copa América. His only international goal came at the 1988 Rous Cup, in a 1–1 draw against England.
His nicknames say a lot about how he was seen: El Caballero del Fútbol, “the Gentleman of Football”, for his clean and calm style of play. Off the pitch he was known for wanting to show a more positive image of Colombia to the world at a time when the country was associated with drug violence.
There is also a family detail that links him directly to street football. His father, Darío Escobar, a banker, founded an organisation that gave young people the chance to play football instead of being on the streets.
The own goal and the murder
Colombia arrived at the 1994 World Cup with high expectations. In their second group match, against the hosts, the United States, Escobar stretched to block a cross from John Harkes and deflected the ball into his own net. The United States won 2–1. Colombia then beat Switzerland 2–0, but Romania’s win over the United States meant Colombia finished bottom of Group A and went home.
Escobar chose to return to Colombia. On the night of 1 July 1994, five days after the elimination, he went out with friends in the El Poblado neighbourhood of Medellín. In the early hours of 2 July he was shot and killed outside a nightclub. His murder was widely reported as retaliation for the own goal, and it badly damaged Colombia’s image abroad. He was 27.
He is still remembered with great affection in Colombia, especially by Atlético Nacional supporters.
Why street football chose his name
The streetfootballworld network that organised the Berlin festival was built around one idea: that football can bring together young people from groups that would otherwise be in conflict, and give them prospects in their own communities. The German Foreign Office described the aim of the tournament as setting “a clear sign against violence, xenophobia and racism”, and said the participating projects were meant to give young people “a social perspective in their home country”.
Escobar’s story is the exact opposite of what those projects work for. A mistake on a football pitch, one that any defender could make, ended with a man being killed. Naming the trophy after him turned that story around: the festival used his name for a tournament where the result mattered less than the way the game was played and the people who played it.
Colombia had a direct place in that story too. One of the 22 teams in Berlin was Fútbol por la Paz from Bogotá, alongside projects from Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Chile.
Who won the Copa Andrés Escobar?
The final was played on 8 July 2006. Mathare Youth Sports Association from Nairobi, Kenya, drew 2–2 with KickAIDS from Pretoria, South Africa, and won the penalty shoot-out 4–3. MYSA’s players came from Nairobi’s informal settlements; KickAIDS represented a project using football for HIV/AIDS education.
The tournament did not start the way the organisers had hoped. The teams from Ghana (Play Soccer, Accra) and Nigeria (Search and Groom, Lagos) were refused visas by the German authorities and could not travel. The full list of teams, by region, is in the Festival 06 archive, and the results are in the original results PDF.
FAQ
What was the Copa Andrés Escobar?
It was the trophy of the streetfootballworld festival 06, the street football world festival played in Berlin-Kreuzberg from 2 to 8 July 2006 during the FIFA World Cup.
Why was it named after Andrés Escobar?
The tournament was created in memory of Escobar, the Colombian defender murdered after scoring an own goal at the 1994 World Cup. Its message was against violence, xenophobia and racism.
Who won it?
Mathare Youth Sports Association (Kenya), after a 2–2 draw with KickAIDS (South Africa) in the final and a 4–3 win on penalties.
Did the festival open on the anniversary of his death?
Yes. Escobar was killed on 2 July 1994, and the festival was opened on 2 July 2006.
Conclusion
Most people remember Andrés Escobar for one moment at the 1994 World Cup and for what happened afterwards in Medellín. The 2006 festival offered a different way to remember him: as a defender known for fair play, whose own family had worked to get young people off the streets and onto a football pitch. For one week in Kreuzberg, young players from twenty-two projects played for a cup with his name on it.