Roberto Rojas

Roberto Rojas
	Rojas in 2013
Personal information
Full name	Roberto Antonio Rojas Saavedra
Date of birth	8 August 1957 (age 67)
Place of birth	Santiago, Chile
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Youth career
	Aviación
Senior career*
Years	Team
1976–1981	Aviación
1982–1987	Colo-Colo
1987–1989	São Paulo
Total
International career
1983–1989	Chile
Managerial career
2003	São Paulo (interim)
2007	Comercial
2007	Ituiutaba
2007	Guaraní
2008–2009	Sport Recife (assistant)
2009	Sport Recife (interim)
Medal record
Men's football
Representing Chile
Copa América
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Roberto Antonio Rojas Saavedra (born 8 August 1957), nicknamed El Cóndor, is a retired Chilean football goalkeeper. In 1989, he deliberately injured himself during a World Cup qualifying match in an attempt to avoid a loss by the Chile national team. The incident resulted in a lifetime ban for Rojas and one World Cup ban for Chile. His ban was subsequently lifted in 2001.

Playing career

Rojas was born and raised in the capital Santiago. He began his career in 1976 with Deportes Aviación and went on to play for Colo-Colo from 1983 until 1987. With Colo-Colo, Rojas won national titles in 1983 and 1986. In 1987, after a successful performance in the Copa América, he transferred to Brazil's São Paulo where he remained until 1989.

Coaching career

After his retirement he returned to São Paulo to serve as a goalkeeper coach, training Rogério Ceni.^[1] In 2003, Rojas served as interim coach and took the team to the Copa Libertadores for the first time since 1994. He was later a goalkeeping coach for Brazilian side Sport Recife.

As a coach, he led Comercial,^[2] Ituiutaba and Sport Recife in Brazil and Guaraní in Paraguay.^[3]^[4]

1989 World Cup qualifying incident

In 1989, Rojas was in goal for Chile's 1990 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Brazil at Rio de Janeiro's Maracanã stadium. Chile, down 1–0, would be eliminated from the upcoming World Cup if they lost or if the match ended in a draw. Around the 70-minute mark of the match, Rojas fell to the pitch writhing and holding his forehead. A firework, thrown from the stands by a Brazilian fan named Rosenery Mello do Nascimento, was smoldering on the pitch about a yard away. It seemed that Rojas had been hit by the firework, an incident that could have had the match nullified and possibly even have had Brazil penalized by FIFA. Rojas, his head bloodied, was carried off the field; his teammates then refused to return claiming that conditions were unsafe. The match was unfinished.

Video evidence later showed that Rojas had not been hit by the firework. His head injury was discovered to have been self-inflicted with a razor blade he had hidden in his glove. FIFA awarded Brazil a 2–0 win, effectively eliminating Chile from the 1990 World Cup. As a consequence, Chile was banned from the 1994 FIFA World Cup and Rojas was banned for life, along with the coach Orlando Aravena and the team doctor Daniel Rodriguez.^[5]

A Chilean inquiry found that Aravena had ordered Rojas and Rodriguez by walkie-talkie to remain on the ground and that Rojas was to leave the field on a stretcher.^[5] The team's co-captain, Fernando Astengo, was banned from football for the next five years for deciding to remove the team from the field.^[5]

In 2001, following a request for a pardon, Rojas' ban was lifted by FIFA.^[5]