Always been trouble against those Colombians
The first match between england and Colombia took place two days after Bobby Moore was accused of stealing a bracelet in Bogota.
Undistracted by the threat of imprisonment in a country ravaged by guerrilla warfare and murderous drug cartels, england’s World Cup-winning captain led his champions to a 4-0 victory at the lung-burning altitude of 8,675 feet.
The hotel Tequendama was where england stayed before a Martin Peters double and goals from Bobby Charlton and Alan Ball downed Colombia.
It also housed the Green Fire jewellery store, where shop assistant Clara Padilla alleged Moore had lifted from a showcase a gold bracelet valued at £625.
The police asked him to go to headquarters ‘just to sign your statement of innocence’. Once there, they reneged on their promise to take him back to the airport in time for england’s flight to Mexico City. Thus began a history of Anglo-Colombian football which, for 25 years, would be enveloped by criminal conspiracy, assassination and a scorpion.
Late into the night of his detention, the British ambassador — allied by pressure from the Colombian government — strove to persuade the chief of police to put Moore under house arrest, rather than pack him off to Bogota’s most notorious prison.
They prevailed when Alfonso Senior, director of the Colombian FA, signed a surety to take Moore to his own home. Two guards were posted at that mansion. At first they accompanied Moore on the dawn run he insisted on making to stay match fit. Thereafter he left them sleeping on their stools in the doorway, pausing on his jog to buy the milk they needed for their morning coffee.
Then came a face-to-face meeting with Señorita Padilla. Despite disproving her story, he was not released.
eventually the police caved in, asking Moore to sign a release declaration in which he swore to be available for further interrogation in england if required.
Cheering crowds waved Moore through Bogota airport, then pandemonium greeted him in Mexico City. Four days later, Moore helped england beat Romania in their World Cup opener, before starring in a 1-0 defeat by Brazil. his journey ended in the quarter-finals against West Germany.
The charges were dropped five years later. ‘It was a set-up,’ said Moore. ‘Through it all I held on to that.’
Thirteen years after Moore was absolved, England met Colombia again. That match, at Wembley in the Rous Cup, ended 1-1 but the dreadful significance of the equaliser to Gary Lineker’s goal was not realised for six years.
Andres Escobar scored that goal and would find the net again in the 1994 World Cup. Unfortunately, it was an own goal in a 2-1 defeat by hosts America, which knocked Colombia out.
On July 1, four days after a glum return, he went for a drink with friends. At 3am, as he climbed into his car outside a Medellin nightclub, he was shot dead by three gunmen. He was 27.
Many countries contributed to a charity founded in his name to help poverty-stricken children into football. England played their part by inviting Colombia to Wembley in 1995.
That match introduced The Scorpion. Keeper Rene Higuita enlivened a 0-0 draw by raising his heels behind his head to clear a goal-bound effort from debutant Jamie Redknapp.
The two games since have been strictly football. England beat Colombia 2-0 in the group stage at France 98, with Darren Anderton and then David Beckham scoring.
Most recently, on a summer tour in 2005, a Michael Owen hat- trick secured a 3-2 win which kept England unbeaten against Colombia, on three wins and two draws.
Now we meet again. Hopefully Harry Kane will not be apprehended on a trumped-up charge of spying in Russia before he can help deliver a reprise of that 4-0 scoreline 48 years ago.