Fifteen years ago, FC Barcelona played a friendly that was supposed to be notable mainly for its venue. Instead, the occasion famously offered the first glimpse of La Blaugrana’s most hyped and most precocious talent.
That Nov. 16, 2003 game against FC Porto marked the grand opening of the Portuguese club’s Estadio do Dragao. It was packed to the rafters with some 52,000 supporters – still the stadium’s attendance record – on hand for a visit from a Barca team that already boasted a wealth of talent, including new signing Ronaldinho.
At that point, the brilliant Brazilian was one of the greatest players on the planet. Two months before the friendly, he’d woven through Sevilla defenders before smashing home off the underside of the crossbar from fully 30 yards. It was the kind of truly remarkable goal only a generational talent could score. And remarkably, a player who’d eventually eclipse Ronaldinho’s standards was part of the same squad, though few outside Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy suspected it.
The 16-year-old got his chance with a little over 15 minutes of the Porto clash remaining. Wearing No. 14 on the back of his oversized shirt, former Newell’s …read more