Elson Evelio Becerra Vaca (April 26, 1978 – January 8, 2006) was a Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

n footballer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

.

A national team

Colombia national football team

The Colombian national football team represents Colombia in international football competitions and is controlled by the Colombian Football Federation. It is a member of the CONMEBOL...

 player, Becerra participated in the 2001 Copa America

Copa América 2001

The Copa América 2001 was held in Colombia, from July 11 to July 29, 2001. It was organised by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body....

 as well as the 2003 Confederations Cup, where he became noted for trying to save the life of the collapsed Marc-Vivien Foé

Marc-Vivien Foé

Marc-Vivien Foé was a Cameroonian international footballer, who played in midfield for both club and country. With success in the French League, and stints in the English Premier League, his sudden death, while in the middle of an international competitive fixture, came as a shock to the worldwide...

. He also featured in Colombia's unsuccessful qualification

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL)

Listed below are the dates and results for the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds for South America. 10 teams took part, all in a single group. The rules were very simple: the teams would play against each other in a home-and-away basis, with the four teams with most points qualifying to...

 for the 2006 FIFA World Cup

2006 FIFA World Cup

The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...

.

On club level the striker

Striker

Forwards, also known as strikers, are the players on a team in association football who play nearest to the opposing team's goal, and are therefore principally responsible for scoring goals...

 had played for Al Jazira

Al-Jazeera Club

Al-Jazira Sports & Culture Club is an football club from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates...

 in the United Arab Emirates

United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...

 since 2003. He previously played for Deportes Tolima

Deportes Tolima

Deportes Tolima, is a Colombian football club based in the city of Ibagué. The club was founded December 18, 1954 and play their home games at the Manuel Murillo Toro stadium, which has a capacity of 30,000.-Foundation:...

 and Atlético Junior

Atlético Junior

Corporación Popular Deportiva Junior, known simply as Junior or by its former name Atlético Junior, is a Colombian football team based in Barranquilla. The club was founded in 1924 Known as "Los Tiburones" , or "El Equipo Tiburón" have won the Colombian professional football championship six times...

.

Becerra was shot in a night club in his birth town Cartagena

Cartagena, Colombia

Cartagena de Indias , is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department...

 together with his friend Alexander Ríos, apparently after they had had a fight with a group of men a couple of days earlier.

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