Manchester United should sign one of the best attack talents in South America before the tragedy hit.
Salvador Cabanas was crowned both for the Paraguayan and the South American footballer of the year 2007, and Sir Alex Ferguson is said to be an enormous admirer of the striker.
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However, a terrible attack in 2010 ended his Old Trafford dream.
At the age of 29, Cabanas was shot in the head in the bathing rooms of Bar -Bar -Bar -Bar -Nacht Club in Mexico city, where he was the star player for Club America, by a man who claimed to be a drug dealer.
As if by a miracle, he survived.
“I remember everything,” recalled Cabanas.
“He started to insult me and suddenly took out a gun. He pointed to me and told me that I am JJ, the most searched drug dealer. And today is your last day because you will die. You steal from us, the Mexicans, and Today is your last day.
“I said, ‘Why? I came here to work because I need the money. Then he shot me.”
Cabanas’ potential assassin was a notorious figure on the streets of Mexico city, which is known as “JJ” – Jose Jorge Balderas Garza.
JJ was supposedly connected to the dreaded killer Edgar ‘Barbie’ Valdez Villarreal, who had just taken control of Los Negros -the armed wing of the Drug Cartel from Beltran -Leyva.
Valdez, who currently served a 49-year-old prison sentence in the United States, admitted to the protection of Balderas after the attack in one of his hiding place.
The attacker himself was arrested in Mexico in Mexico in 2020 in Mexico, but he has never stood on trial because of the brutal attack on Cabanas.
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The consequences influenced his memory, impaired his gaze in his left eye and weakened the left side of his body.
The timing could not have been worse for Cabanas, who had agreed a career -definent and life -changing change to the Premier League Giants United.
It also ended his chances of playing later this year at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, where he was expected.
In an interview with Telefuturo, Cabanas said: “I had signed a preliminary contract agreement for £ 1.3 million for a transfer to Europe. They told me that my goal was Manchester United.
“Club America doubled my salary and gave me an apartment in Acapulco and another in Cancun to keep me in the club.”
Ultimately, he stayed in South America and even celebrated a remarkable comeback with his hometown Club Club Club Club 12 de Octubre before lying on his boots two years later.
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“When you consider what happened to me and I came back – nobody would have imagined it,” said Cabanas.
His club has promoted the Paraguayan Second Division, but Cabanas’ narrative, although inspiring, is anything but easy reading.
Surprisingly, he returned to the pitch after everything, but life has been a challenging struggle since this fateful day in 2010.
Now separated from his wife, he finds consolation in his family’s bakery in Itaugua.
“After I got out of my Asuncion house after my separation, I came to my parents’ house and started helping them with the family business that is the bakery,” he said.
“I’ll go ahead,” he added.
“I like the work; people recognize me and ask me about football. I have a lot of fun.”
Cabanas scored ten goals for his beloved country in 44 games and represented her at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
With extraordinary strength and finishing skills, he even ended a year later as a top scorer in the Copa Libertadores.