Get to know the cocaine boss who plays professional football while on the run from the authorities and uses several pseudonyms as a wanted criminal who uses his fortune to buy teams and stadiums

Sebastian Marset always wanted to play football – when he was young and working at a petrol station, he spent his entire salary on a David Beckham track jacket.

Marset and his friends grew up playing on the street, making gates out of stones and writing numbers on their backs with felt-tip pens.

But from his time as a semi-professional football player it was clear that he lacked the quality to further advance his career.

It was clear to some that Marset’s footballing desire was inspired by money after friends saw him walking home from nightclubs because he could not afford the bus after rubbing elbows with the wealthier members of society.

Instead, the Uruguayan turned to a life of crime and attempted to earn the nickname “King of the South.”

As the Washington Post reported, his first contacts with Monteviedo’s criminal underworld were actually quite minor.

At 18, he was arrested for possession of stolen goods and a year later for possession of narcotics.

It wasn’t long, however, before he was trusted with much more – at 22, Marset accepted the job of receiving a shipment of marijuana – a task usually given to a team of men, but he had gained the traffickers’ trust.

But police had received a tip and Marset was harassed by officers, where he immediately surrendered, with one officer recalling him as being smart and respectful.

After taking his mugshot, one of the agents recalled telling a colleague, “This guy is going to be a big problem for us one day.”

It wouldn’t take long for his concerns to become reality, as Marset left prison in 2018 at the age of 27 and had numerous criminal contacts.

Marset joined Deportivo Capiata in 2021, where he offered players large sums of money for victories

Deportivo Capiata’s biggest win came against top Argentine club Boca Juniors

He managed to make connections with the Brazilian and Italian organized crime networks and it wasn’t long before he traveled to Paraguay to build his empire.

There he forged his first pseudonym, the name Gabriel de Souza Beumer.

In 2021, Marset made his first foray into football, where he showed up at Deportivo Capiata and announced himself as a new signing from his silver Lamborghini.

There he made a deal with his teammates that for every win he would pay them thousands of dollars on top of their current contracts.

The only problem was that Marset had paid for his place in the starting XI – wearing a number 10 shirt that his performances couldn’t live up to, while Capiata struggled to win games.

Capiata was the pride of the suburb of Asuncion; the club famously secured the Boca Juniors top league in 2014.

But in the following years things were difficult for Capiata and they were relegated to Paraguay’s second division.

After his arrival in 2021, Marset began funding improvements for the team, there were new televisions, physio beds and better food in the cafeteria.

Although Marset is not officially listed as the owner, investigators say he pumped money into the club and took some of its earnings, but he laundered money through Capiata.

Head coach Jorge Nunez had no intention of using the drug lord until the players surrounded the boss and insisted that Marset had to play.

After joining the club, Marset spent thousands improving Deportivo Capiata’s facilities

“I kept asking myself, ‘Who is this guy?’ Nuñez said, adding: “I had an obligation to win, otherwise they would fire me.”

“But it wasn’t the same for him. He was just having fun.’

Marset seemed relatively unfazed by the potential to raise his profile as a professional footballer until he learned in May 2021 that officials were attempting to punish him.

His training with Capiata was cut short and his name was immediately removed from the squad. Although none of his teammates in Paraguay heard from him again, Marset didn’t stop playing football.

After the failure, it was revealed in 2023 that the drug lord was now living in Bolivia and in the same year he is said to have bought Los Leones El Torno FC

Only this time Marset followed in his idol’s footsteps and finally wore the number 23 that David Beckham made famous during his time at Real Madrid.

After speaking to Canal 4, Marset appears to have gone into hiding again while authorities keep an eye on the situation.