Ricardo Jorge Navarro He cut short at Independiente Medellín in 1966 and there his son was born, whom he called Carlos Fernando. Very soon they returned to Argentina and the little boy followed in his father’s footsteps to be a goalkeeper.
It was formed in Velez Sarsfield and when he was only 18 years old, Alfio ‘Coco’ Basile made his debut. Carlos Ischia was a teammate of Navarro Montoya at the Liniers club and was later signed by Junior de Barranquilla.
(See also: The Rodríguez Orejuelas went for Maradona; he rejected them, but not for drug traffickers)
Ischia rrecommended the young goalkeeper to the ‘sharks’ to sign him and started talking about this player. In 1985 the Colombian National Team disputed the Qualifiers and suffered the injury of the historic Pedro Antonio Zape.
Luis Octavio Gómez replaced him, but Gabriel Ochoa Uribe decided to summon Carlos Navarro Montoya who had Colombian nationality. The goalkeeper trained in Argentina played against Venezuela and two games against Paraguay and the tricolor managed to qualify.
América de Cali was one of the most powerful teams on the continent with millionaire signings thanks to money from drug traffickers Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela.
The ‘escarlatas’ bought Navarro Montoya, but in 1986 they decided to lend him to Santa Feclub managed by Silvio and Phanor Arizabaletadrug traffickers associated with the Rodríguez Orejuela. America had dozens of players who gave it to other teams.
(See also: The award that the Rodríguez Orejuela gave to an América player for scoring a goal)
Navarro Montoya has said that he accepted the proposal for economic reasons, although it was not a good decision. The goalkeeper stood out in Santa Fe, but the team did not qualify for the final octagonal.
“The last time I spoke with Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela I asked him to let me return to Argentine football and he told me no, that I belong to América and he decided where he was going to play. He did not want me to return to Santa Fe, which was the only place where I would have agreed to play in Colombia”, recalled the soccer player in ‘Estéreo Fútbol Podcast’ in 2020.
Upon arriving in Argentina, the goalkeeper gave statements in which he assured that the Colombian football was infiltrated by drug traffickersor, something that everyone knew and few dared to speak about it.
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For football managers and some journalists this was a treasonthey came to call Navarro Montoya “vendepatria” and Ochoa Uribe affirmed that he would never count on him in the Colombian National Team or in America.
While solving the matter of his pass with FIFA the colomboargentino was almost a year without being able to play. Navarro Montoya always spoke of his regret for coming to Colombia, although he has shown his gratitude to Santa Fe for giving him the opportunity and how the fans and team managers treated him.
