Cosas Locas: Ron the dog vs Carlos Navarro Montoya, 1991

Navarro Montoya inspecting his wound.

22 May 1991: Chilean side Colo-Colo hosted Argentine giants Boca Juniors in the second leg of the Copa Libertadores semi-final. Colo-Colo were 1-0 down from the first leg but won the game 3-1 to become the first Chilean side ever to progress to the final.

The most famous incident of the night happened during a pitch invasion. Remarkably the Chilean police appeared to be too busy intimidating the Boca Juniors players with dogs to bother about all of the fans on the pitch. Eventually a police dog named Ron bit the Boca Juniors goalkeeper Carlos Fernando Navarro Montoya on the right calf.

Aftermath

Colo-Colo won the final of the 1991 Copa Libertadores beating Paraguayan side Olimpia 3-0 on aggregate in the final to become the first, and to date only Chilean side to win the premier club competition in South America.

Carlos "el mono" Navarro Montoya recovered from the bite to have a long and successful career, playing until his retirement in 2009 at the age of 43.

The police dog Ron became instantly famous in Chile as "el perro que mordió un mono" (the dog that bit a monkey) his picture appeared on the covers of several newspapers and magazines and he spent much of the rest of his life touring the country. His life ended on 10 November 1997 but his fame continues, the fans of Colo-Colo erected a statue of him and he even has a Facebook page in his honour.

For more crazy South American football check out the rest of the Cosas locas series.