25 Years After Escobar, Another Colombian Footballer Faces Death Threats

Colombia footballer, William Tesillo, has confirmed that he and his family have been at the receiving end of death threats as a result of his penalty miss at the ongoing COPA America in Brazil.

The 29-year-old defender, who plies his professional trade with Club León in Liga MX, failed to convert the decisive penalty against Chile at the Arena Corinthians, leading to his country’s ouster from the tournament.

He has confirmed that he and his family have been targeted with death threats, with his wife, Daniela Mejia, detailing the threats on her Instagram account.

“Yes, yes. It’s correct,”Tesillo said when asked if the death threats reports are true. He told El Pais de Cali: “They wrote to my wife and she published [them]. They wrote to me too, but I didn’t publish anything.”

Speaking with Radio Caracol, his father lamented: “In the face of the threats that are being imposed on us, we only pray. You have to think that this is just football and that you can lose or win.

“Yet this will do little to calm those behind the intimidations, one of which callously alluded to an infamous 1994 murder and read: ‘I hope that what happens to him is the same [that happened] with Andres Escobar’.

Colombia defender, Escobar, was murdered days after returning to Colombia after he scored an own-goal against host, the United States, during the 1994 World Cup.