Elson Evelio Becerra Vaca (26 April 1978 – 8 January 2006) was a 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 lea ...
.
Club career
Born in
Cartagena, Becerra began playing football with
Deportes Tolima's youth academy. He joined the senior squad at age 17, helping the club gain promotion to the Colombian second division. He scored 64 goals for Tolima.
On club level the
striker had played for
Al Jazira in the
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...
since 2003. He played for
Emirates Club
Emirates Club () is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. They play in the UAE Pro League after being promoted from the UAE First Division League. They play their home game ...
during the 2005 season. He previously played for
Deportes Tolima and
Atlético Junior
Club Deportivo Popular Junior F.C. S.A. (), commonly known as Junior de Barranquilla, by its old name Atlético Junior or simply as Junior, is a Colombian professional football team based in Barranquilla, capital of the department of Atlantic ...
.
International career
A
national team
A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport.
The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...
player, Becerra won the
2001 Copa America and participated in the
2003 Confederations Cup, where he became noted for trying to save the life of the collapsed
Marc-Vivien Foé.
He also featured in Colombia's unsuccessful
qualification
Qualification may refer to:
Processes
* Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress
* Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...
for the
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...
.
Death
Becerra was shot in a night club in his birth town
Cartagena together with his friend Alexander Ríos, apparently after they had a fight with a group of men a couple of days earlier. He was
27 years old.
See also
*
List of unsolved murders
References
External links
*
1978 births
2006 deaths
2001 Copa América players
2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players
Al Jazira Club players
América de Cali footballers
Men's association football wingers
Atlético Junior footballers
Categoría Primera A players
Colombian men's footballers
Colombia men's international footballers
Colombian murder victims
Copa América–winning players
Deaths by firearm in Colombia
Deportes Tolima footballers
Emirates Club players
People murdered in Colombia
Footballers from Cartagena, Colombia
UAE Pro League players
Unsolved murders in South America
21st-century Colombian sportsmen
2006 murders in Colombia
{{Colombia-footy-forward-stub