Estadio Eduardo Santos, Football stadium in Santa Marta, Colombia.
Estadio Eduardo Santos is a disused football stadium in Santa Marta, Colombia, with concrete stands around a grass pitch. It holds about 22,000 spectators and was Unión Magdalena's home until 2013, when it closed for safety reasons. A 6.5-metre bronze statue of Carlos Valderrama stands at the entrance.
Opened in 1951, the stadium hosted Deportivo Samarios in the Primera A in 1951 and 1952; that club recorded Colombian football's biggest win, 12-1 against Universidad Nacional, and was later refounded as Unión Magdalena. In 1968 Unión Magdalena won its only league title with a final against Deportivo Cali played here; a fan died in a traffic accident during the victory caravan, an event remembered as the "Curse of the Celebration." The stadium closed permanently on 3 March 2013 after Unión Magdalena's last match against Llaneros FC.
The stadium is named after Eduardo Santos, a journalist and politician who was President of Colombia from 1938 to 1942. At the entrance stands a bronze statue of Carlos 'El Pibe' Valderrama, sculpted by Amilkar Ariza and unveiled in 2002 before about 14,000 people. The monument is 6.5 metres high and weighs eight tons.
The stadium stands in the Villa Olímpica of Santa Marta and has been closed since 3 March 2013, when Unión Magdalena played its last match there against Llaneros FC because the stands no longer met safety conditions. It is only occasionally opened for under-17 and under-20 matches. The bronze Valderrama monument at the entrance can be seen from outside.
In 1974 FIFA named Colombia host of the 1986 World Cup and the Eduardo Santos was chosen as a venue, but the tournament went to Mexico instead. A marble plaque on a column of Santa Marta's Olympic Stadium recalls the bid that never happened. The ground also hosted a Chayanne concert in 1992 and a Carlos Vives show in 2010.
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