EXCLUSIVEPART- TIMER ON THE HELL LET LOOSE BY HIS I was just a teacher who got to mark Falcao... then came all the death threats
ERTEK’S PICTURE WAS ON THE WEB NEXT TO ONE OF MURDERED STAR ESCOBAR
INJURING a fellow footballer does not normally earn you global notoriety – but for Soner Ertek one mistimed tackle turned his life upside down.
From being an unknown amateur player for French team AS Chasselay a year ago, the primary school teacher was suddenly the most wanted man in Colombia.
His crime? Putting Radamel Falcao out of the 2014 World Cup – an unfortunate misdeed that sent Colombia’s crazy football fans into total meltdown.
Supporters were so incensed that Ertek was sent a chilling internet reminder of the fate which befell Andres Escobar. The Colombia captain was gunned down at the age of 27 outside a Medellin night club by angry criminals after scoring an own goal against the USA which condemned his country to a World Cup exit in 1994.
Nightmare
Now a year on and Ertek has, for the first time, revealed the frightening death threats and late-night calls from South America that followed his brush with Falcao in a French Cup tie in January last year.
Falcao is now at Manchester United and struggling to convince boss Louis van Gaal to splash out £44million and make his season- long loan deal from Monaco permanent. But a year ago, he was in his pomp – a goalscorer the envy of every top club in Europe and the man all Colombia hoped he would fire them to World Cup success in Brazil.
Ertek recalled: “It was a dream for Chasselay, a team from the fourth division, to be playing a big side like Monaco.
“But it turned into a nightmare for me because of that challenge on Falcao. He had already scored and Monaco were 1-0 up when I