It’s not everyday that a footballer’s career pretty much comes to an end because of a bullet to the head, but that’s unfortunately what happened to Salvador Cabañas.
The 36-year-old former striker was shot in the head on the 25th of January 2010 following an argument in a club bathroom at 5am, and somehow survived.
Speaking to El Día Después, the former Paraguay international recalled the events, accused of ‘robbing Mexico’ when all he was doing was playing Club America before having a gun pointed at his head.
Cabañas explained he told the assailant he ‘wasn’t scared’ when he saw the gun shaking in his hands, before being asked to ‘make one final wish before I shoot you’.
He goes on to recall he told the man: “If you’re a killer, why are you shaking? Shoot if you want to shoot.”
That’s when the man took the shot.
The bullet entered Cabañas’ forehead and lodged itself just above the neck, where it remains to this day, but, somehow, he survived.
All this, according to El Comercio in Peru, happened around the same time he received an offer from Manchester United.
Scoring 87 goals in 146 games for America, you can understand why Sir Alex Ferguson was interested to bring him at Old Trafford at the time.
The injury forced him to stop football for two years, but the great comeback never really happened.
Jumping from club to club for two years, Cabañas eventually retired in 2014, with the shooting leaving him ‘without family and in financial trouble’.
He said: “I lost a lot of money. When I was ill, pretty much everything from my accounts disappeared.”
His one regret?: “Being in that club as a professional footballer at that time.”
