It was December 23. It was Christmas Eve. Santiago Escobar was waiting for the date with his family. Like any family. Like any Christmas. It was a break in the middle of his hectic job as soccer manager. He had no pain. He felt healthy. Strong. Vital. But he wasn’t. A silent adversary ran through his body and came to reveal himself that day. Santiago did not expect it, nobody expects it, and nobody knows what to do in those cases. Santiago neither. Prostate cancer, they told him, and he couldn’t believe it. He so healthy, he so strong. But that same December 23, 2020 Sachi, as everyone knows him, decided that he was not going to lose, that it would only be a short break: He was sure that football was going to be waiting for him.
It’s Monday. El Sachi lives a busy day. His work as the new DT of the University of Chile, one of the most traditional clubs in that country, demands a lot of time: training sessions, videos, meetings, more training sessions, matches and hours of analysis. It gets dark and he walks through the streets of Santiago, as he does almost every night for an hour. He is thinking about his next line-up, whether he will make changes or not, what he must correct, what he must strengthen his team. And while he is meditating on all that, he answers this call from Colombia.
His voice is the same as always, so friendly, so calm, so paisa. She has been making her debut in Chilean soccer for a couple of weeks, and with victories: 2-4 against La Calera, away, and 2-1 against Antofagasta, at home. That makes him happy. The first thing he says is that he feels strong, like before or more than before. Cancer, that meddling that threatened his life, is for him “an anecdote”. He says so.
El Sachi is described as a positive person. And he is. He was on the field as a soccer player and he is as a DT – he was champion twice with Atlético Nacional, 2005 and 2011–. But above all, he was that December 23 when he found out about his illness. At that time, Sachi carried out his routine normally: he exercised, walked, went to work happily, attended his annual urology check-ups, felt no pain, had no symptoms, no suspicion, no latent threat, until that sabotage of life: cancer.
First he was afraid, a panic that entered his ears in the form of defeat. But all the possible anguish was giving way to a mature calm. There, surrounded by his family, he looked at them all, one by one, at his wife Juliana Curi; to his two sons, Martín Escobar –today 17 years old–, and Antonio Escobar –15 years old–, and to his brothers. And he decided that they did not deserve to suffer for him, and he told them, as if he were speaking to his team in the locker room: “I’m going to win this game!”
A few hours after the impact, the Sachi had already assimilated it. She did not renege. She didn’t complain about what she got. She accepted it all. He defeated fatality before starting to play, and by a landslide. He offered the disease to God, so that he could decide, but not as someone who surrenders or resigns or gets depressed, but as someone who accepts the most important challenge of his life, to have a second life.
The Battle of Sachi Escobar
At that time, Sachi directed the Catholic University of Ecuador, where he lasted four years. The last six of him have been outside the country, always away from his family –before he was at Deportivo Táchira in Venezuela–. But when it all started, he was in Medellin, at his house, waiting for Christmas. And although he wanted to run out onto the pitch and be with his team, he knew he had to be patient and take the obligatory break. A forced break.
“I accepted the instructions of the doctors –says Sachi– and together we made the decisions: they offered me some surgery, to remove the prostate; others, do radiotherapy, aim for a curative treatment… I opted for that treatment, and today I thank the doctors and God who allow me to continue living and fighting for my projects, for my dreams, for everything I want to be human and professional.
Treatment began with medication and hormone blocking therapy. She then sent a message to his team: “I want to live, train and be with you.” In February she began radiotherapy, all in Medellin. Those days did not defocus him from the idea of victory for him. He was always surrounded by his family, his friends, his players who dedicated each game to him from a distance. In each of the 26 sessions he had, he thought about all of them, and he thought about getting back on the court soon. And he thought, as he always does, of his brother Andrés Escobar, that soccer player for the Colombian National Team who was assassinated in 1993 and who visits him every day in his thoughts. The Sachi had every reason to overcome this challenge.
The return of Sashi
“I’m not going to give myself up, I have to get ahead…” Santiago Escobar repeated to himself over and over again. It was decided that this victory would be the best example for his children, that of not giving up in the face of the worst adversities.
In May 2021, another piece of news was in his ears, only this one was like music: the body responded well and the radiotherapy was successful, they told him. Then Sachi looked at his family again, satisfied, like someone lifting a trophy and offering it to thousands of fans. Like who knows that personal victory was not his alone. And he couldn’t take it anymore: he felt that football was coming for him to take him back, without more pauses. The Sachi became the Sachi again.
“I finished my radiotherapy and the same day I asked the doctors for permission to travel to Ecuador to continue working, it is that it helps in the mental part: work in what you like, feel useful, and be in this profession, there are already 24 years in the technical part; I couldn’t wait to go back, the doctors understood me, even during a break from radiotherapy they allowed me to go to Ecuador for a month to be with the team”, he says.
It was a test that put my life. It was my opportunity to reinvent myself, to value what I have around me, to not be longing for material things. I realized that happiness is day to day.
And yes, the Sachi had a second life. Back in Ecuador, he received the offer to go on another adventure, to direct the University of Chile. A big challenge, and he said yes, after all he had already shown that no challenge overcomes him. Today, more than a year after that bitter Christmas, Sachi walks the streets of Santiago firmly, walks the streets that are now his streets. He says that he feels “very recovered”. His doctor told him last Friday, February 11, that there is no evidence of cancer. Sachi, at 58 years old, is a stronger Sachi.
“It was a test that put my life. It was my opportunity to reinvent myself, to value what I have around me, to not be longing for material things. I realized that happiness is day to day. Sometimes we look for happiness in other things. Today I realize that we have happiness in the simple things, in a conversation, in enjoying work, family, friends”, she says.
It is not neglected. Attend controls every 3 or 4 months. And he dedicates every second of his life to fulfilling his dreams. She wants to finish training her two children, to whom she has already given the best lesson in tenacity. And he wants to be successful at the University of Chile. And he wants to leave a big mark there. And he wants to continue enjoying the first light of day when he leaves for U training. And he wants to win. And he wants to be bundled up by the first darkness as he goes on his night walks. And he wants to get home to eat something light, watch a movie, do a reading, talk for an hour or two with his children from a distance, and before going to sleep review the training plan once again, and wake up happy, strong, vital, to return to training.
And so every day. Because Sachi never stopped thinking about football, like now, while he talks on the phone and thinks about his next game, about the possible line-up. And if asked what football has been for him throughout this experience, he states, full of conviction: “Football was my medicine. It was that food that was waiting for me.”
PAUL ROMERO
Editor of THE TIME
@PabloRomeroET
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