Once upon a time, Alfredo Pacheco was a soccer hero in his native El Salvador. He now has become a victim of the violence that has swept over the Central American nation.
Pacheco, 33, was shot dead early Sunday morning at a gas station in Santa Ana, El Salvador, the country’s attorney general’s office said, according to Reuters. He was talking with a group of friends when an unknown assailant approached and opened fire. Two others were injured in the shooting.
Pacheco played 86 times, primarily as a defender, for El Salvador’s national team. He was his country’s all-time leader in games played at the senior level.
Club Deportivo FAS, Aguila and Asociacion Deportiva Isidro Metapan are the Salvadoran clubs Pacheco represented between 2000 and 2013. His teams won seven domestic titles.
He played the 2009 season in Major League Soccer for the New York Red Bulls.
El Salvador’s soccer federation ended Pacheco’s career in 2013 when it banned him for his involvement in match-fixing.
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@SkySportsNewsHQ
