By MARK REY MONTEJO
It looks like there could be a new Philippine football hero in the horizon.
At 17 years old, Filipino-Spanish footballer Dro Fernández turned heads in his Barcelona F.C. debut after scoring one of the late goals to help the Blaugrana pull off a 3-1 victory over Vissel Kobe in a friendly match in Japan over the weekend.
With the game tied at 1-1 and 76 minutes already passed, Barca pushed its attack further and went into a late blast that was spearheaded by rising stars Roony Bardghji and Fernández who delivered nifty goals – in a span of 10 minutes – to take the fight out of the Japanese.
Bardghji posted his goal in the 77th minute, while Fernandez hammered the final nail in Vissel’ coffin with a volley from the box’s edge at the 87-minute mark.
And more impressively, Fernandez, whose mother is a Filipina, was a late substitute, but it didn’t bother him to impress in his first-ever appearance in Barcelona uniform alongside four other debutants.
The other were Bardghji, Joan Garcia, Marcus Rashford, and Jofre Torrents.
Fernandez, a Galicia, Spain native, is a current member of the Barcelona U19 squad and has a live contract with Barca until 2027.
With his superb introduction, the fans couldn’t help to compare the former La Masia star to the legendary Paulino Alcántara, a Filipino-Spanish from Concepcion, IloIlo, who made his debut for Barcelona at the very young age of 15.
Alcántara was regarded by FIFA as the greatest football striker in the world and considered by many as the best player from Asia.
He was a multi-titled and achiever while suiting up for Barcelona, and once led the Philippines to a silver finish in the 1917 Far Eastern Championship Games in Tokyo.
But for now, many Filipinos are definitely hoping that Fernandez would don the tricolors in the future.
