The deceased drug trafficker, according to his own son, would have been involved in a bribe to the Peruvian team so that Argentina would win the World Cup in Mexico 78< /h2>
The capo of the Cali Cartel tried to bring Diego Armando Maradona to América de Cali despite the fact that the Argentine was signed by FC Barcelona
Colombian drug trafficking in the 1980s was closely linked to soccer, especially by two of the cartels of the time, the one from Cali and the from Medellin. The first was headed by the brothers Miguel and Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela and they transferred the war to the soccer fields. in 1977 they tried to launder money through the purchase of shares of Deportivo Cali, however the directors of that time refused to accept their admission. This meant that the silver went to América de Cali, a team with a large fan base in the country but that until then only had one title to their name.
The important financial supportIt led to the “scarlet” team having one of the largest payrolls in its history and being classified as a Latin American team due to the quality of its players. The goalkeeper Julio César Falcioni, the Peruvian César Cueto and Guillermo la Rosa, the Paraguayan Juan Manuel Bataglia and Gerardo González Aquino b>, the Argentines Roque Raúl Alfaro and Ricardo Gareca, the Colombian Willington Ortiz, were some of those who wore the red jersey of the Valle del Cauca team at that time.
However, there was a player who was always to the liking of Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela and never managed to make his arrival a reality: the soccer star Diego Armando Maradona. At that time, the Argentine dazzled as the most important young player in the world with Argentino Juniors and winning the under-20 world cup with Argentina.
Two theories revolve around the alleged meeting between “El Diego” and the capo of the Cali Cartel. The first, narrated in the book ‘Gabriel Ochoa Uribe, the greatest coach of all time’ by ‘Beto’ Ochoa, the coach’s son. The following story is recorded there:
“Dad always liked that player since he saw him for the first time and there was a meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel, after the match at the Pascual Guerrero, in which Pepino Sangiovanni and Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela were present. Dad gave the America shirt to Maradona and he put it on. He wanted Diego to stay maturing as a player and they made him an offer, but the hiring never happened.”
The other story involves the drug trafficker who supposedly had put 500,000 dollars on the table in order to convince Diego Maradona to stay once and for all in the city of Cali. This meeting would have taken place at the Intercontinental Hotel and is narrated in the book ‘The son of the chess player 2’, written by Fernando Rodríguez Mondragón, son of Gilberto.
In the end, the signing would not have taken place despite the acceptance of the Argentine player because of the then manager of Maradona, Jorge Cyterszpiler. This is due to the fact that FC Barcelona had made an offer for the young football star, which in the end was accepted and meant his arrival in European football . The relationship between Diego and Gilberto did not end there because the soccer player sent him autographed shirtsand the narco watches gold Rolexes.
In the same book, Fernando Rodríguez narrates the anecdote where his father helped Argentina won the World Cup in Mexico 1987. The Albicelestes had to beat Peru by at least four goals to eliminate Brazil. The Peruvians accepted the bribe money, the match ended 6-0 and Argentina advanced to the final with Netherlands, in which they won 3 -1.
“We learned first-hand what the Argentina-Peru match was like. My uncle Miguel spoke with a world soccer great and confessed to him about the money there was to fix that match to get Brazil out of the final”, he explained after the publication of the book to Caracol Radio.< /blockquote>
Gilberto Rodríguez died at the age of 83 in a prison in the United States where he was serving a sentence for drug trafficking. Preliminarily it is known that he had been in bed for weeks.