Alvaro Recoba

Here’s a little bit about the man known as “El Chino” and the one game that made him a legend in my eyes. Now there used to be a show on Channel 4 called Football Italia that gave rise to kids around the country running around and shouting “Golaccio” whenever they scored a goal. Football Italia would show highlights of all the games in Serie A and the occasional live game. Now Inter were now having the best of times in Serie A back in 97-98 despite having brought in the now sadly retired Ronaldo. The game I was watching at the time was against Brescia and Inter were 1-0 down and it was looking like being another game to resign to the back of my memory. Then as a last throw of the dice with little time left the manager brought on this little Uruguayan fella called Alvaro Recoba. I must confess to never having heard of the guy but ever since then it is a name I could never forget for I was about to witness one of the most remarkable debuts I have ever seen.

To start with Recoba got the ball about thirty yards out on the left side of the pitch, steadied himself and then unleashed an unstoppable rocket right into the top left corner. Now that really had me on the edge of my seat. But there was still more to come! Next Inter won a freekick about thirty yards out once again and up stepped Recoba. This time the ball flew into the keeper’s top right corner. The fans were on their feet, the noise was unbelievable. Recoba had saved the day for Inter with two contenders for goal of the season on his debut.

Later in the season the Uruguayan maestro also scored this belter from near the half way line against Empoli. Sadly over the years Recoba was in and out of the Inter squad and never really seemed to hit those heights again. After ten years in Italy and a short stint in Greece afterwards with Panionios, Recoba headed back to his boyhood Danubio to resurrect his career. A great player on his day with a lethal left foot that has left many a goalkeeper looking dumbfounded as the ball flew past them into the net once again.