Ivan Cordoba does not forget Andres Escobar
Cordoba’s words
Back "Stories of Serie A" on Radio-TV Serie A with RDS, with the episode dedicated to Ivan Cordoba: "I do not have a clear memory of my first time with a ball, but I remember that my dadà played amateur and one day he took me; to a game of his. From there; I havenè left the ball no more. That period è was a very difficult page in our history because apart from drug trafficking there were also the wars between the different armed groups within the country and a daily conflict between the Medellin and Cali cartels. There was concern, but when you are a kid, you have the feeling that nothing will ever happen to you, you just think about playing and having fun. And the’goal of playing soccer è has been very important in my life, as it is è and will be; also for all young people becauseé they find a chance to stay away from that underworld that then also leads to almost always sad endings".
"I don’t know what I would have done if I had not been a soccer player. I always studied up to a certain point trying to follow the teachings of my parents who always told me that my first responsibility was to study because it would give me a chance to do something important in the future and so I had to do well in school otherwise I could not train and I could not play in Rionegro. My study included two parts: the academic part in the morning and the technical part in the afternoon and so it was complete my day. Sometimes I had to not go to school to train, even risking missing subjects due to absence. I was on the edge of my seat, so Iò worked very hard, becauseé I had to stay late doing my homework and then have a chance to play soccer".
"My idol was Andres Escobar. He had a very lucky story but he left in the memory of all Colombians such a strong and deep message as a footballer, as a professional, as a person that still lives in that memory and will live forever. For me to see him play on TV was a spectacle. Children or boys who were looking for someone to imitate could only have him as their idol. For me it was a demonstration of a complete player in every sense and I would watch what he did, how he played, how he behaved, how his relationship was with others and with the fans. And then è an unbelievable, fantastic story happened, maybe a randomness of life, forò I think that there are no such things as randomness, but rather, that fate waits for one and one has to be ready when it comes.
"I inherited the number 2 jersey but I didn’t ask for it because it’had already been put away and I didn’t feel like it, it wasn’t right to go there’and ask for it. They knew that I liked to play with the 2 però in the national team it was several months that I was playing with the 17. Then one day the coach, who had had Escobar, grabbed me and said “Ivan you have to wear this jersey because é he has to continue his path. We must not close the memory of Andres and leave him thereì. I find in you so many qualities and I think you are the right person to wear this jersey and continue what Andres” did. At that moment I did not believe it, that jersey for me was something sacred forò when the coach told me this I had yes more responsibilityà but also more awareness of having that jersey on and I tried from that moment on to do something important wherever I went".
