Paulino Alcantara

Paulino Alcántara Riestrá (Iloílo, Captaincy General of the Philippines, October 7, 1896 - Barcelona, Spain, February 13, 1964) was a Spanish soccer player and doctor of Filipino origin. Historical player of the Barcelona Football Club, he is considered the first great figure of the club, in which he scored 369 goals in 357 matches between official and friendly matches. It was the highest record reached by any member of the club until in 2014 it was surpassed by Lionel Messi.

He was the first player born in Asia to play for a European club.

Trajectory

Beginnings

Born in what was then the Captaincy General of the Philippines, a Spanish overseas territory and the reason why he had Spanish nationality, as his military-medical father was stationed there. In 1899 he arrived in Barcelona with his parents, the same year that the Football Club Barcelona was founded. As a child, in 1909, he started at the Athletic Club Galeno, a club founded by medical students and predecessor of the Universitary Sport Club. Endowed with an innate talent, Paulino himself, who after saving two pesetas to pay for his membership of F. C. Barcelona, went to Joan Gamper to establish a children's team and be able to play, and at the same time, debut in the first team.

His golden years in Barcelona

Paulino Alcántara, reference barcelonist.

After being signed up with the Football Club Barcelona, he made his debut on February 25, 1912 at just 15 years, 4 months and 18 days old, setting a precocious record in force at the club as of 2021. He was the author of a hat-trick in the 0-9 victory against the now-defunct Català Sport Club, FC Barcelona's greatest rival at the time. He showed great skill, as well as a strong shot with both legs, qualities that helped him to be one of the best footballers of his time, and not in vain, years later he became the top scorer in the club's history with 138 goals in 134 games played between 1912 and 1927.

He was also one of the players with the longest career in the entity, although between 1916 and 1918 he returned to the Philippines, then under the US government, to study medicine. There he joined the Bohemian Sporting Club, in Manila, with the who achieved two national championship titles, scoring a total of 24 goals in 23 games. These performances did not go unnoticed in the national territory and for this reason he was called up to the Philippine team. With the national team he played in the 1917 Far Eastern Games held in Tokyo —a precursor competition to the Asian Games— there he participated in the victory 15-2 against Japan —the biggest defeat conceded by the Japanese team— by scoring two of the goals. History of Philippine football. In the second game, they withdrew after a brawl caused by a penalty (which led to the 4-0) against China. They were his only two caps for his native country.

Back in Spain, on the condition that his parents not abandon his studies, Paulino earned the nickname "el romperredes". This was due to an event that occurred in a game in Bordeaux against the French team, with the player wearing the Spanish team shirt, on April 30, 1922. A shot from him slipped into the goal and went through the net to the surprise of those present. Although the feat was branded as epic and thus narrated by the fans and media of the time, years later his former teammate Manuel López Travieso —author of two goals in that match, like Paulino— confessed the reality of the events that occurred:

“[...] It was, however, a beautiful goal. But something unheard of happened to that fabulous date of our football. The balonazole scrap taking an angled direction (right of the doorman), did not find the usual obstacle. The network, a network built approximately in the time of Carlos Martel, was in tune with the musical chords scattered throughout the field: repeat of holes. And between that orchestral and chirene noise came out that Alcántara's chut broke the net. Nothing more than that [sic.]. ”.

Manuel López Naughty. Chronicle in the Excelsius1933.

In his record there are five Spanish Cups, he could not play any match in the Spanish Soccer League since he retired from soccer in 1927, a year before the first edition of the tournament was held, launched in 1928.

National team

He was capped five times with the Spanish team, of which he was also a coach, with which he made his debut on October 7, 1921, the day of his 25th birthday. Before that, he played for the Philippine team, with two appearances and two goals scored. Despite his extraordinary ability to score, he could not attend any major international event, especially the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games where Spain won the silver medal. Applied in his studies, and just as he promised his father, he put these before sports and gave up going to finish his final exams.

Biography and private life

Medicine and the Civil War

In 1916, Alcántara returned to the Philippines to study Medicine, his vocation since he was a child, but the situation of FC Barcelona made him return to Barcelona in April 1918. Since the mid-1920s, he has combined his sports career with the practice of medicine.

On August 4, 1936, he fled to Andorra and France because the National Uprising failed in Barcelona on July 19, 1936.

He entered Navarra and volunteered for the Carlist Board in Pamplona in October 1936; They granted him the rank of second lieutenant and assigned him to a hospital in Requeté in Zaragoza.

During the early Spanish Civil War, Alcántara participated in numerous military operations of the Francoist army with the First Battalion of the Second Tank Regiment in the provinces of Huesca and Teruel in 1937.

Since October 13, 1937, Alcántara was also a member of the fearsome First Battalion of the Italian-Spanish Mixed Legionary Brigade “Flechas Negras” (Frecce Nere).

The First Battalion of the Flechas Negras Mixed Legionary Brigade in which Paulino Alcántara was part of until after the end of the Spanish Civil War, was a unit of the Corps of Volunteer Units (Corpo Truppe Volontarie) sent and directed directly by Benito Mussolini in help from the Franco side.

With the Flechas Negras, Alcántara rose to the rank of lieutenant and served on the fronts of Guadalajara, Aragon and Catalonia, entering Barcelona on January 26, 1939, with the Mixed Legionary Brigade of the Flechas Negras, together with General Yagüe.

The newspaper La Vanguardia of February 21, 1939, recounted in detail the explanations given by Francoist lieutenant Paulino Alcántara on a visit to his newsroom: “Doctor Alcántara has arrived with the national troops, who was able to leave soon out of the Marxist abyss and, facing the sun and facing the enemy, he has led a brilliant campaign in the Caudillo's Health Department, having reached the rank of lieutenant".

Positions during the Franco regime

Once the Spanish Civil War had ended, until March 2, 1940, Paulino Alcántara remained in Barcelona assigned to the Mixed Legionary Brigade of the “Flechas Negras” as a lieutenant.

He also held various positions in the Franco regime, both in the Traditionalist Spanish Falange and the JONS and in the Provincial Board of Barcelona of the National Brotherhood of Provisional Ensigns, during the decades after the triumph of the rebel side.

Statistics

Clubs

Updated data to end of sports career.

Before joining the Football Club, Barcelona began at Athletic Club Galeano —predecessor of the Universitary Sport Club—. From 1916 to 1918 he played the Philippine national championship with the Bohemian Sporting Club of the then Insular Government of the Islands The Philippines, an unincorporated territory of the United States, in which the statistical breakdown by season of his 23 games and 24 goals is unknown. The data offered are those of the documentary archive of F. C. Barcelona, which differs in some figures with the Great dictionary of Barça players.

Club	Season	Div.	League		Cup		Regional		Total		Media Shotgun
			Part.	Goles	Part.	Goles	Part.	Goles	Part.	Goles
F. C. Barcelona	1911-12	1.a C.	Non-existent		-	-	1	3	1	3	3.00
F. C. Barcelona	1912-13		Non-existent		4	5	-	-	4	5	1.25
F. C. Barcelona	1913-14		Non-existent		-	-	2	1	2	1	0.50
F. C. Barcelona	1914-15		Non-existent		-	-	9	4	9	4	0.44
F. C. Barcelona	1915-16		Non-existent		4	4	11	25	15	29	1.93
Bohemian S. C.	1916-17	1. a	?	?	Non-existent		Non-existent		?	?	?
Bohemian S. C.	1917-18		?	?	Non-existent		Non-existent		?	?	?
Total club			23	24	0	0	0	0	23	24	1.04
F. C. Barcelona	1918	1.a C.	Non-existent		-	-	2	-	2	0	0
F. C. Barcelona	1918-19		Non-existent		5	7	12	11	17	18	1.06
F. C. Barcelona	1919-20		Non-existent		3	3	9	14	12	17	1.42
F. C. Barcelona	1920-21		Non-existent		-	-	8	7	8	7	0.88
F. C. Barcelona	1921-22		Non-existent		4	8	7	16	11	24	2.18
F. C. Barcelona	1922-23		Non-existent		-	-	8	7	8	7	0.88
F. C. Barcelona	1923-24		Non-existent		7	8	7	4	14	12	0.86
F. C. Barcelona	1924-25		Non-existent		2	-	1	-	3	0	0
F. C. Barcelona	1925-26		Non-existent		6	3	14	4	20	7	0.35
F. C. Barcelona	1926-27		Non-existent		4	2	4	2	8	4	0.50
Total club			0	0	39	40	95	98	134	138	0.97
Total career			23	24	39	40	95	98	157	162	1.03
↑ There was no League Championship (1911-27). 1.a category club by the Catalan Football Federation. ↑ Includes data from the Spanish Cup (1913). ↑ Includes data from the Catalan Championship and its 1915 champion annex, called the Barcelona Cup (1911-27).

Selections

International Goals

#	Date	Stadium	Rival	Goles	Outcome	Competition
1.	10 September 1917	Tokyo, Japan	JapanJapan	0–1	2–15	Far East Games
2.				?–?
3.	9 October 1921	San Mamés, Bilbao	BelgiumBelgium	1-	2-	Friendly
4.				2-
5.	18 December 1921	Campo de O'Donnell, Madrid	PortugalPortugal	2-	3-1	Friendly
6.				3-
7.	30 April 1922	Stade Sainte-Germaine, Le Bouscat	FranceFrance	1-	4-	Friendly
8.				2-

Coach

Equipment	Year
Spain	1951

Honours of Prizes

National Championships

(All with FC Barcelona)

Spanish Cup: (5)

• 1912/13, 1919/20, 1921/22, 1924/25, 1925/26

Regional Championships (12)

• Pyrenees Cup: (2)
  • 1912, 1913
• Campionat de Catalunya: (10)
  • 1912/13, 1915/16, 1918/19, 1919/20, 1920/21, 1921/22, 1923/24, 1924/25, 1925/26, 1926/27
• Championship Male Opening of the Philippine Football Federation:(2)
  • 1916/17, 1917/18