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Philippines, 24 Apr 2024 |
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BARCELONA REMEMBERS CENTENNIAL OF PAULINO ALCANTARA By Ronnie Nathanielsz PhilBoxing.com Sun, 26 Feb 2012  Paulino Alcantara. Barcelona FC, the most exciting football team in the world which boasts of the best player in the game today in Lionel Messi, has remembered the 100th anniversary of the Filipino striker that FIFA named ?The Best Asian Player of All-Time? - Paulino Alcantara. Many Filipinos, clearly fascinated by the popular Azkals who together with the United Football League have helped in the resurgence of interest in football, perhaps don?t even know that a Filipino-Spanish player was the star striker of Barcelona whose record number of goals scored stands to this day. The Barcelona FC website recalled that on February 25, 1912 the 15 year old Alcantara first wore the coveted jersey in the Catalonian Championship against Catal? Sporting Club. Bar?a won 9-0 and Alc?ntara scored the first three goals to set a record that has never been broken for being the youngest player to ever score for FC Barcelona in an official match. Born in Iloilo to an Ilongga mother and a father who was a Spanish military officer, Paulino moved to Spain where the legendary striker was discovered by Joan Gamper and was signed up by Barcelona, Gamper was responsible for forming the Barcelona club and became its president in 1918. Alcantara ripped the net in a match against France and from then on was nicknamed "El Rompe Redes" or The Net Breaker.? The first Filipino and Asian player to play top class football in Europe Alcantara scored 357 goals in a total of 357 matches to earn the distinction of being the club?s highest goalscorer. He went on to help the club win several championships including the coveted Spanish Cup, the Copa del Rey. Returning home in 1916 Alcantara played for the Bohemian Sports Club and helped win two Philippine Championships in 1917 and 1918. His absence from the Barcelona line-up clearly showed as the club failed to win a trophy while he ( Alcatara) was away. He returned to Barca in 1919 and helped the club win another Campionat de Catalunya as well as another Copa del Rey and the Campionat de Catalunya in 1920 with Alc?ntara scoring in the 2?0 conquest of Atletico Bilbao in the Cup final. Alc?ntara once again proved his talent as a striker scoring twice in the 1922 Cup final as Barca beat Real Union 5-1 . He also netted the winning goal in Barca?s narrow 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid Picked for the Philippine team in the Far East Asian Games in 1917 Alcantara helped rip Japan by 15 goals to 2 to register the country?s biggest win in international football. Selected to play for Spain in the 1920 Olympics, Alcantara decided instead to stay at home to take his final medical exams. Eventually suiting up for Spain in October 1921, the ace striker scored both goals against Belgium. He made five appearances and scored six goals for Spain between 1921 and 1927. Barcelona?s website reported ?Defying his slender appearance, Alc?ntara was a true professional from the start and fully dedicated to the cause. His medical studies helped him no end, especially his knowledge of the very latest fitness methods. This meant that an extraordinarily skinny looking player on the outside was built like a train within, and his ability to strike the ball hard astounded everyone that ever saw him play. Looking so appealing with his white handkerchief always hanging out of his shorts, he became the first major media figure in FC Barcelona history. On April 13, 1919, Alc?ntara scored what the website said ?has gone down in history as the "police goal" in a game at Les Corts against Real Sociedad. A powerful shot from the Filipino was heading straight for the goal when a stray policeman somehow got in the way of the ball. Such was the power of the shot that both the ball and policeman ended up in the back of the net.? Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.  |
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