Fifty years ago the England captain was arrested for theft. But was it a prank? Did the piece of jewellery even exist?
“Only those four walls know the truth,” Hernando Rojas reflected, jabbing a gnarled finger into the distance, a crooked smile creasing his cheeks. “But something strange went on that day, I can assure you.”
Rojas was well into his 80s when he finally packed it in as the resident shoe shiner at Bogotá’s emblematic Hotel Tequendama. But for almost 60 years he was the eyes and ears of the establishment’s lobby – watching everyone, observing all. From Fidel Castro to Jimmy Carter, Neil Armstrong to Pelé, many were the stars to cross the famous foyer floor. Yet it was a blond Englishman that the octogenarian remembers best. “A giant; the most elegant man I’d ever seen,” Rojas recalled when I saw him a few years back. “Bobby Moore, champion of the world.”
Written by Carl Worswick in Bogotá
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/may/28/bobby-moore-and-the-mystery-of-the-missing-bogota-bracelet under the title “Bobby Moore and the mystery of the missing Bogotá bracelet”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
