It was the middle of summer in Sao Paulo, the last day of January 2019, and as is normal for the time of year a tropical deluge had engulfed the city just before five o’clock in the afternoon.
Nobody in the elegant old Pacaembu Stadium near the city’s centre cared though, especially not those in the white, red and black of Sao Paulo Futebol Clube. They were transfixed by a waifish, shaven-headed figure in the middle of the pitch.
He was not much to look at, the boyish physique an indication of his inexperience. And with his sopping wet, baggy kit sagging from his shoulders, he looked more drowned rat than future football superstar. But then he took off, zipping along the slick surface like greased lightning in pursuit of a delightfully weighted through-ball.
As he accelerated, first bearing down on his marker, then easing past him, the inevitability of the outcome became ever clearer. The scrawny teenager collected the ball, paused just long enough for the defender’s momentum to take him past, then cut inside and rammed the ball through the goalkeeper and into the net. Sao Paulo two, Vasco da Gama nil.
Seven minutes into the second half, the final looked like it was won. Sao Paulo fans jumped up and down, the puddles on the concrete terraces splashing beneath their feet.
It was only a youth tournament, the Copa Sao Paulo de Futebol Junior, or Copinha. But this was doubly special.
Firstly, this was the youth tournament in Brazil, the tournament that has given rise to the careers of Kaka, Neymar, Kaka, Vinicius Jr and countless others – the one that Brazil stops to watch every January, when 120 teams descend on Sao Paulo state to do battle – and its latest star had been born.
Secondly, Sao Paulo fans had not seen their senior team win a trophy for seven years, far too long for a club of their stature. If you want to understand the symbolic value a successful youth team can take on when the first team is not performing, just ask Manchester United fans.
As it happened, any thoughts of Sao Paulo comfortably seeing out the second half before sauntering up to lift the trophy were premature. Vasco came back, scoring twice to put all those in attendance through the agony of penalties. But Sao Paulo passed the test of character, winning from the spot.
And while goalkeeper Thiago Couto was the shootout hero, there was no doubt about who had been the real star of the show: that lightning-quick, goalscoring waif Antony dos Santos.
His stardom had been…
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