On Friday, the Mexican national team qualified for the World Cup in Russia. However, Rafael Márquez, captain of the team and idol of the Mexican fans, does not play football at the moment. The 38-year-old instead tries to free himself from the allegations that he has washed money for a drugbot.
The former defender of AS Monaco (from 1999 to 2003), FC Barcelona (2003 to 2010) and Hellas Verona (2014 to 2016) is one of the few Mexican professionals who have been successful in the long term. Accordingly, the football-mad country is the player who, in the late autumn of his career, plays again with his youth club Atlas de Guadalajara. In Mexico, Márquez is referred to as “Emperor” in the style of Franz Beckenbauer .
Since August 10th, however, there is no longer only the image of the Emperor, but also that of a criminal. In the opinion of the American investigators, Márquez has been washing money for the drug dealer Raúl Flores Hernández, who was arrested in July. The Treasury in Washington froze Márquez’s accounts in the United States and canceled his visa.