JUAN ROMAN RIQUELME

1996- 2002, 2007- 14 GAMES 388 CLUB BOCA JUNIORS

BEFORE Boca Juniors hadn’t won the Copa Libertadores since 1978. The club were in the midst of financial ruin in the mid- 90s and had little choice but to field academy graduates. Step forward a generational star...

LEGACY Riquelme made his debut at home to Union de Santa Fe on a baking afternoon in 1996. Typically for a 17- year- old, he looked wiry but eager to impress. And boy, did he. Los Xeneizes’ crowd fell for him immediately, and his name was soon ringing out across La Bombonera. It was a match made in heaven – much to the confusion of outsiders over the years. How could a player who glittered only sporadically in Europe and split the opinion of his managers be so unanimously adored by one fanbase in Buenos Aires?

Boca were a mid- table side when Riquelme first dazzled, but by his third season had won the Apertura and Clausura league titles. The schemer was the jewel in their crown, linking up with striker Martin Palermo in one of the oddest couples late- 90s football had to offer.

“The only thing that unites us is [ our desire to] defend the colours of Boca,” commented Palermo of his team- mate/ nemesis in 2010. Where ‘ The Titan’ was hugely passionate and gritty, Riquelme was cerebral and introverted. Eurosport melodramatically once labelled the Argentine playmaker “an artist imprisoned in a world of athletes”.

In 2000, Boca faltered domestically. River Plate’s resurgence earned them the Clausura title with players like Pablo Aimar and Javier Saviola, but Boca had the last laugh. Having trailed their arch rivals 2- 1 in the first leg of a Copa Libertadores quarter- final, Riquelme inspired his team to a 3- 0 win in the second leg at La Bombonera. Defender Mario Yepes became the high- profile victim of a sublime Riquelme nutmeg still remembered by Boca supporters to this day.

“Any other player would have just booted me, but he tracked me to the corner,” said the midfielder of Yepes. “I think that’s more manly than pulling off a nutmeg.”

Fittingly, both Riquelme and Palermo buried their penalties in the shootout at Palmeiras which delivered a third Libertadores back to Boca – their first in 22 years. This was the title that Diego Maradona himself could not win, but Riquelme followed it with an outrageous performance in Tokyo as Boca defeated Real Madrid to lift 2000’ s Intercontinental Cup.

Here was a club that had faced meltdown while Riquelme was a kid – yet for one night, they were sharing a stage with the Galacticos and showing them up. President Florentino Perez was reportedly livid in the aftermath.

For Boca, it was a platform to demonstrate what they could really achieve. “This victory is for Argentina,” said boss Carlos Bianchi. “We were able to prove that Argentine football is the best in the world.”

After a second straight Libertadores victory on penalties in 2001 – against Mexico’s Cruz Azul – Riquelme departed for a disappointing year at Barcelona, then headed for Villarreal. He missed a spot- kick in the 2006 Champions League semi- final second leg against Arsenal, but soon bamboozled at a World Cup where La Albiceleste were among the finest teams, despite losing to hosts Germany.

He returned to La Bombonera in 2007. At 29, Riquelme was just as much of a titan as Palermo, who was also back at the club. The midfielder dragged Los Xeneizes to a sixth Libertadores, scoring three goals across the final’s two legs against Gremio and sealing his reputation as the greatest player in Boca history. By then, they were a giant of world football, not a fading force of Argentina – and they owed so much to that wiry, shy boy who had shone a decade earlier.

BEST MOMENT Defeating Real Madrid 2- 1 in the 2000 Intercontinental Cup. In a display of grace and control on the world stage, the playmaker “painted the pitch with the most beautiful colours football has known,” said Argentine newspaper Olé.

“RIQUELME PAINTED THE PITCH WITH THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COLOURS FOOTBALL HAS KNOWN”