Alexander Escobar Gañán (born 8 February 1965), also known as Álex Escobar, is a retired Colombian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. Escobar is highly regarded in América de Cali and LDU de Quito, as well as in the Colombia national team. With the first he won six Primera A titles, and with the second won four

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

titles. He is also the player with most appearances in América de Cali.

Club career

Escobar was born in Cali on 8 February 1965. His father was Hernán Escobar Echeverry, a retired defender that played in América de Cali,

Atlético Nacional Atlético Nacional S. A., best known as Atlético Nacional, is a Colombian professional football club based in Medellín. The club is one of only three clubs to have played in every first division tournament in the country's history, the oth ...

and

Independiente Medellín Deportivo Independiente Medellín, also known as Independiente Medellín or DIM, is a Colombian professional football club based in Medellín that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at Estadio Atanasio Girardo ...

. Escobar scored 14 goals in 83 matches in the Copa Libertadores from 1984 to 2004, making him the 9th player with most appearances in the tournament on 27 March 2004.

América de Cali

Escobar was part of the youth team of América de Cali, and played for the national football team of Valle del Cauca on 1982 and 1983. He debuted for América on 1983, and played for the team until 1997, when was transferred to LDU de Quito. Escobar is the player with most appearances for América, with 505 games played, and with 75 goals scored.

International career

Escobar made his international debut on 3 November 1985 (at just 20 years old), while playing for América de Cali, in the match against

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

for the 1986 FIFA World Cup qualifying. The match ended with a 2–1 win, but Colombia (who had lost the previous game 4–0) was eliminated. Two years later he was part of the national squad for the

1987 Copa América The 1987 Copa América was the 33rd edition of the Copa América, CONMEBOL's national team competition. It was the first Copa América under the new rotational hosting system. Argentina, as the first country alphabetically, hosted the tournament ...

, in which Colombia finished third. Escobar only played one match, the 2–1 win against the host

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in the third-place match. Escobar scored his only goal for the national team in the 74th minute of the 2–2 draw against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

on 26 February 1994 in a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

Career statistics

Club

''This table is incomplete, thus some stats and totals could be incorrect''.

International

International appearances

International goals

Honours

Player

;América de Cali * Primera A (6):

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

, 1992 ::Runner-up (3):

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

* Copa Libertadores ::Runner-up (4):

, 1996 ;Atlético Mineiro *

Copa Master de CONMEBOL The Copa Masters CONMEBOL ( en, CONMEBOL Masters Cup, pt, Copa Master da Conmebol or Supercopa Conmebol) was a football club competition contested by the 4 past winners of the Copa CONMEBOL at the time. The cup is one of the many inter-South Ameri ...

::Runner-up (1): 1996 ;LDU Quito *

(4):

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, 2003, 2005 Apertura

Assistant coach

;América de Cali * Primera A (1): 2008 Finalización ::Runner-up (1): 2008 Apertura ;Juan Aurich * Torneo Descentralizado (1): 2011 ;Junior * Primera A (1): 2010 Apertura

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Escobar, Alex 1965 births Living people Colombian footballers Colombia international footballers Colombian expatriate footballers Association football midfielders Categoría Primera A players Ecuadorian Serie A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players América de Cali footballers Atlético Minero footballers L.D.U. Quito footballers Millonarios F.C. players Deportivo Pereira footballers Expatriate footballers in Brazil Expatriate footballers in Ecuador 1987 Copa América players Footballers from Cali