Contemporary fans are fortunate that we can learn about the stars we follow through various channels, but more than half a century ago, when television images were not yet widespread, some stars' performances could only be dedicated to live audiences, which also affected their future popularity.
The original intention of the author to write "Top 100 Superstars of the Pre-TV Era" is to hope that future generations can understand these former superstars, and they can stand out in their own times, which has proved everything. The stars of this series are limited to between 1890 and 1939, and I hope you will know.
If you look at the century-old history of Barca Club, it is almost the inheritance of the ball king, starting from Kubala in the 50s, the team has always lacked top superstars. Even if it once fell to the bottom, the Red and Blue Legion has always been shrouded in aura. It's just that they had a natural sharpshooter as early as 100 years ago, but now few people mention it.
If there is a list of the greatest players in Asia, Cha Fangen, Kim Sung-sung, Majid, Oviland, Ali Dei, Nakata Hidetoshi and even Son Heung-min will be listed among them, but in my opinion, it is one less person to be planted everywhere. In fact, as early as 100 years ago, a natural marksman was born in Asia, but now it has been forgotten by most fans.
If you know a little about this history, you can probably see that the two identities are actually the same person, which is the brilliant Paulino Alcántara.
The chosen son of the Mixed Asian-European race
Alcantara was born at the end of the 19th century, the son of a Spanish officer stationed in the Spanish-controlled Iloilo region of the Philippines, and found a local woman to marry and have children. So Xiao Ah is a Spanish mixed race, who fell to the ground in the Philippines at the beginning, and returned to the suzerainty of Spain with his parents at the age of 3.
It was around the time of A's return to Spain that Mr. Gamble founded FC Barcelona, and it was he who discovered Alcantara's football talent and took him to the red-and-blue academy. As a small, seemingly thin shooter, Xiao A has excellent agility and speed ability, and is good at vigorously bombarding goals, which is like a nightmare for defensive players.
At the age of 15 and 4 months, he played for Barca and scored a hat-trick in his debut, and is still the youngest player to score for the team. Unfortunately, at that time, the unified La Liga had not yet been established, Xiao Ah could only play a full fist in the Cathay region, and the exchange of masters between the regions could only rely on the annual Copa del Rey.
After Barca rose to fame, Alcantara also successfully became a member of the Catalan team, but has not yet been called up for the Spanish national team. In the early days of football, some relationships appeared delicate and fragile.
A journey back to time with an imprint of eternity
Around 1916, Alcantara's parents returned to the Philippines and took their son with them. His father, as an old-school soldier, still hopes that his son will take the "right path" in the future, and football at that time still belongs to the list of "strange tricks and tricks", conservative and quite social elders, naturally want their son to engage in legitimate occupations. Under the arrangement of his family, Xiao A began to learn the knowledge of pharmacy, and in time he could become a doctor.
But football has long been an integral part of Alcantara's life, and while studying in the Philippines, he joined a local team to ensure training and competition. In 1917, he was also selected for the Philippine national team and participated in the Far East Games held in Japan.
If you have some knowledge of the history of Chinese football, you should be familiar with this "Far East Games", which was an influential comprehensive sports event in Asia before World War II, and China, Japan and the Philippines are the old faces of the event. The soccer matches of the Games are played in a 3-team round robin system, playing one game against each other, and the best result wins the championship.
With the help of Alcantara, the Philippine team was indeed extraordinary, facing the Japanese miscellaneous army composed of students, they actually won 15-2, but due to the lack of data, the author does not know how many goals Xiao A scored. In the second game between the Philippines and the Republic of China, fierce clashes broke out between the two teams, and the final match was interrupted, and the Chinese team was awarded the title of champion. Also due to the lack of information on later generations, the author is not sure whether the ball Alcantara was on or not.
Return to Barcelona and create a legend
Although the players came and went freely at that time, Barca, who had lost Alcantara, was struggling, and for two years there was no honor to be won, so they had to find a way to ask him to come back. After several negotiations with A's parents, Alcantara returned to Spain in 1918 to continue playing for Barca.
The only regret is at league level, la Liga in general was not created until 1929, and Alcantara retired in 1927. Although he played well in the Copa del Rey and won many championships, and showed a sweeping trend in the Catalan region, he missed the window period that did not catch up with history and was gradually forgotten by future generations.
Alcantara scored 369 goals in 357 games for Barca, but the definition of the game that year was vague, so many of his goals were not recognized. In Barca's definition, Messi's previous team's top scorer was Cesar Rodriguez, who actually scored only 232 goals. If there had been La Liga in Alcantara's time, his official match goals would have been far behind Cesar's.
Of course, there is no controversy about this now, because Messi has already surpassed all legends, but while we celebrate today's ball king, we must not forget the contribution of our predecessors. Alcantara is a peer of the Barca club who started the first dynasty of red and blue and is also a legendary figure for Asian football.