Paulino Alcántara

Early years

Alcántara was born and raised in Concepcion, Iloilo, in the Spanish colony of the Philippines in 1896. He was the son of Don Eduardo de Alcántara y Garchitorena, a Filipino born criollo Spaniard from Manila, and Doña Victoriana Riestrá, a Filipina mestiza of mixed Spanish origin from Iloilo. He was raised there until he was three years old when his family moved to Barcelona fleeing from the conflicts of the Philippine Revolution's war of independence from Spain, the same year that FC Barcelona was formed by Joan Gamper. In Spain, Alcántara started playing for FC Galeno, a Barcelona-based club that was founded by and largely made up of medical students and young doctors with their games played in the courtyard of a local hospital. He immediately impressed and in February 1912 he was scouted by Barcelona's president Joan Gamper who attended a Galeno match. Alcántara then joined Barcelona's youth team and within the same week, he made his first-team debut at the age of 15 years, 4 months and 18 days on 25 February 1912 against Catalá SC (founded only weeks before FC Barcelona) in the Campionat de Catalunya (Catalan football championship) at the Camp de la Indústria, in front of about 100 fans. Barcelona won that game 9–0, with Alcántara scoring the first three goals of the game, setting the still unbroken record for being the youngest player to ever play and score for FC Barcelona in an official match. He was also the youngest hat-trick scorer in the…

Medicine

In 1916, Alcántara, along with his family returned to the Philippines, traveling by ocean liner, to settle back in their homeland. While there, he studied medicine and played professional football in the Philippine Domestic League, but the situation with FC Barcelona meant that in 1918, he returned to Spain to play for the club due to the high demands of his footballing services. Most of his family members stayed in the Philippines, while he travelled back to Spain to continue with his football career. From the mid-1920s he combined his professional football career with the practice of becoming a doctor.

Politics

In the 1930s, Alcántara entered politics and was a member of the Falange Española, the variant of Spanish Fascism. On 4 August 1936, he became a soldier and fled to Andorra and France after Franco's coup failed to take the city of Barcelona on 18 July 1936. In 1936 Alcántara was a Carlist volunteer and participated in numerous military operations of the nationalist troops of Francisco Franco. During the Spanish Civil War, Alcántara was Lieutenant of the first battalion of the Brigade Legionary Black Arrows (Frecce Nere). The Black Arrows was a volunteer corps (Corpo Truppe Volontarie) directed directly by Benito Mussolini. With the Black Arrows, Alcántara served on the fronts of Guadalajara, Aragon and Catalonia. With General Yagüe, he entered the city of Barcelona victoriously on 26 January 1939. After the Spanish Civil War, Alcántara…

Alcántara was married to Blanca López, a Spaniard from Barcelona, with whom he had two sons, the eldest being Eduardo Alcántara López. Alcántara was the son of Don Eduardo de Alcántara y Garchitorena, a criollo Filipino or island-born Spanish from Manila who served as a soldier in the Spanish Army, and Doña Victoriana Riestrá y Cauilán, a criollo Filipino or island-born Spanish from Lal-lo, Cagayan. Alcántara was one of seven children born to a large Spanish Filipino family, and he had three brothers and three sisters. His siblings were Fernándo, Eduardo, Diego María Tomás Ramón José Ceferino, María Victoria, Maria de la Paz, and Josefa, whom were all born and raised in the Philippines. Alcántara maintained his Spanish nationality throughout his life, and he was also a sovereign Philippine citizen.

Final years

Alcántara fell ill of a rare condition of aplastic anaemia and died in 1964 at the age of 67 in Barcelona and is laid to rest in Cementiri de les Corts in Barcelona, Catalonia, next to Camp Nou football Stadium in Spain.

Alcántara, an iconic figure in world football, is known for his achievements with FC Barcelona, winning a record of 10 Spanish League: Catalan Football Championship titles, 5 Copa del Rey and 2 Pyrenees Cup between the 1910s and the 1920s, and scoring 395 goals in 399 matches; a club record which was broken by Argentine footballer Lionel Messi about a century later in 2014. He is regarded by FIFA as one of the greatest football strikers in the history of football, and the best Asian footballer of all-time. Alcántara is also regarded by Barcelona as one of its great legends, being immortalized at the club's Hall of Fame museum at Barcelona. He was also a popular political figure in Spain during the 1930s. However, even with football being the most popular sport in the world, Alcántara had limited recognition back in his native country, the Philippines, until the 2010s, partially caused by a surge of popularity amongst a new generation of football fans and interest in football in the Philippines. In 2018, the domestic cup tournament of the Philippines Football League, the Copa Paulino Alcántara was named in his honor. He was also named part of the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame in 2021. Alcántara was one of several Filipino footballers to have played in the Spanish League, including Eduardo Teus from Real Madrid, Juan Torena, Gregorio Querejeta from Real Zaragoza and Atlético Madrid, Ignacio Larrauri, Julio Uriate, Manuel Amechazurra from FC Barcelona, Felipe Calderon,…