If you don’t know this story then buckle up because it’s an absolute cracker.
Roberto Rojas was a Chilean goalkeeper, who in his senior club career play 153 games for Colo-Colo in his native Chile and São Paulo in Brazil, he also has 49 international appearances. He won league titles with Colo-Colo in 1983 and 1986, a rather unremarkable career on the surface of it for a man widely regarded as Chile’s best ever keeper, but you’d be wrong.
It appears old Rojas isn’t afraid of a little drama, in 1979 aged 21 he was in the Chile under 20 squad for the South American championship, he was included with other players because of fake passports that were issued by the Civil Registry, on arrival back in the capital Santiago he and the entire team and back room staff were arrested, the coach Predro Garcia was sentenced to 1084 days in prison for his part in the scam.
In 1984, Rojas tested positive for steroids after a friendly against England, which meant he missed the chance to represent Chile in the Los Angeles Olympics.
He almost cost Chile a place at the 1987 Copa America, the side almost flew home from Argentina over a row as to how prize money would be awarded.
But most shockingly of all in 1989, in a winner takes all World Cup Qualifier for the 1990 World Cup in Italy. At the Maracana, mental atmosphere as it tends to be in South America, especially with 141 thousand people in attendance, trailing 1-0 with 20 minutes to go a Brazilian woman by the name of Rosenery Mello do Nascimento threw a flare onto the pitch, it seemed as though it had hit Rojas. The game was stopped, blood was pouring from Rojas’ face and Chile refused to play on, spending 3 hours sat in their dressing room.
All was not as it seemed though, photographs from Ricardo Alfieri showed the flare hadn’t hit him, in fact he sliced himself with a razor blade hidden in his Goalkeeper gloves as part of a plot to try and get Brazil eliminated thus ensuring their own qualification, If Alfieri hadn’t been photographing Rojas at that exact moment, nobody would have been any the wiser.
Chile were subsequently banned from the next World Cup in the USA in 1994, and Rojas banned for life.
He was quoted as saying “I cut myself with a razor and the farce was discovered, it was a cut to my dignity. I have had problems at home with my wife. My team mates turned their backs on me but if I were Argentinian, Uruguayan or Brazilian I wouldn’t have been suspended. I did it for passion, for Chile to have a chance”
Absolutely fucking mental story, if he told you the 4 stories from his career you’d have told him he was off his rocker, doesn’t appear to have any luck though does old Rojas!
Cheers, the fat man
Fat Lad Sports 