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Salvador Cabanas Shot in the Head

Paraguay just beat Japan in a penalty shootout to advance to the final 8 for the first time in their history. I'm sure a lot of players are thinking about their friend, and the former star of the Paraguayan team, Salvador Cabanas.

Cabanas is now recovering from a point blank shot to the head, with the bullet remaining in his skull for a period of time. One of the alleged attackers has been arrested, but how he must wish he could be a part of all the joy surrounding the 2010 World Cup. Of course, he must be grateful to be alive, but it must pain him not to have been with his team. This was not a case involving a drug deal; rather, it was a fight about Cabanas' playing ability:

But drugs apparently had nothing to do with the Jan. 25 attack on Cabanas, who survived the gunshot wound to the head and is recovering — though he missed this year's World Cup.

The suspected accomplice, Francisco Barreto, told police that the shooting at a Mexico City bar was over an argument about football, said Ramon Pequeno, the head of the federal police anti-narcotics division. Barreto also said the shooting infuriated his boss, U.S.-born kingpin Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as "La Barbie."

The trouble started when the alleged shooter, Jose Balderas Garza, questioned Cabanas' scoring ability and the football player responded angrily, Pequeno said.

Later, Balderas and Barreto followed Cabanas to the bathroom, where Balderas shot him, Pequeno said. Balderas was identified on surveillance camera footage at the bar but remains at large.

The original Cabanas story is here, from back in January. Cabanas was a key figure in Paraguay's World Cup qualifying run:

Salvador Cabanas, the top player on Paraguay’s World Cup team, was shot in the head before dawn Monday in the bathroom of a bar in a well-off neighborhood in Mexico City.

The 29-year-old striker underwent surgery in which doctors failed to remove a bullet lodged in his skull. Dr. Ernesto Martinez, who was part of the surgical team, said “we cannot guarantee that his life is out of danger.” He called the player’s condition stable.

“Injuries like this are unpredictable,” Martinez added. “We don’t know what kind after effects he might have — perhaps none, or perhaps there will be many. We don’t know right now.”

Read full story here...