To celebrate the country’s return to the World Cup after a 16-year absence, artisans in the high Andean town of Nobsa put on what they billed as the first football match played by sheep on Sunday.
On one side, dressed in specially made jerseys and shorts in Colombia’s national colours of yellow and red, were 10 four-legged players each named after of one of the nation’s top football talents.
Their rivals represented host nation Brazil, where the month-long tournament will begin on June 12.
Some 500 beer-soused spectators cheered on the farmyard footballers, which were trained for two weeks to recognize and kick a foam football through a rustic goalpost made of wooden logs.
There was little evidence of that hard work, though. Sheep are highly social animals, seeking safety from predators in large herds, and their shepherd handlers had to keep pulling on ropes tied to the animals’ necks to keep the bleating players scattered and moving so they would not end up munching lazily on what grass remained on the pitch.
The final result was a 4-3 victory for Colombia, thanks to a goal in the final 50th minute by the mutton midfielder “James Rodriguez”, whose two-footed namesake plays for French club Monaco.
The stunt was part of International Ruana Day, which every year honours local artisans who for centuries have been hand-spinning the poncho-like woolen wraps that are ideally suited to the region’s wet, mountainous climate more than 8,000ft above sea level.