A few seasons ago, when he could still enter stadiums without much of a second glance from the public and when he had, even more than now, the face of a boy who could easily sneak through the turnstiles with a child’s ticket, Paulo Dybala went to Camp Nou to watch a Barcelona-Real Madrid contest. Yes, he enjoyed the atmosphere, the talent on view. And, yes, he admitted on Sunday, it did cross his mind that one day, he might be playing at that arena.
Fitness permitting, he will be in just over a week’s time, striding out with what he hopes is an advantage gained by his Juventus from Tuesday’s first leg of a Uefa Champions League quarter-final between the holders of the league titles of Italy and of Spain. Juve-Barca is also a re-run of the European Cup final of two years ago, though far less of a sequel to that from the Juventus – the Italians were defeated on that night in Berlin – point of view than from Barcelona’s. Their first team has altered substantially since then; Barcelona’s has barely changed.
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It would be hard to argue that Juve’s carefully planned rejuvenation of their resources, their big spends and shrewd scouting over the past two years, has not added elements of verve and adventure to the squad. When they took on Barca in early June of 2015, they had all the accumulated, valuable wisdom and experience of Andrea Pirlo, Patrice Evra, Arturo Vidal and Carlos Tevez in the side. That quartet are among nine of the 14 Juventus players who took part who have moved on.
Dybala joined from Palermo that summer, 21 years old, baby-faced, and, as he acknowledged in Sunday's La Repubblica newspaper, "it was difficult then to imagine what was going to happen". He had suffered a relegation from Serie A, then a promotion from Serie B with the Silician club. Juve paid over €30 million (Dh117m) for the uncapped, diminutive striker, known as the "Jewel".
There would be some teething troubles, some frustrating periods outside the starting XI of manager Max Allegri’s reshaped Juve, but Dybala’s second season at the serial Italian champions has more than justified the transfer fee. On the ball, he is a thrillingly imaginative as any player in Italy’s top flight, and tougher in that division’s physically demanding environment that his wispy, 1,77m-tall frame might suggest.
Whether he can live up to the most hyperbolic estimations of his talent remains to be seen. He cannot avoid Tuesday’s game being framed as a test of that. The Jewel is in a duel, for the first time in his career, with one of his heroes, Lionel Messi, compatriot and fellow-possessor of a blessed left-foot.
“I’ve always admired Messi, and love watching him play,” said Dybala. But he felt it necessary to add: “People must understand I am not a new Messi. I am Dybala.”
The pair have come to know each other on international duty with Argentina, for whom Dybala now has six caps, but as important a chaperone in the young man’s development has been another compatriot, Gonzalo Higuain, the striker who joined Juve for close to €90m from Napoli last summer. On Saturday, a dazzling Dybala helped set up Higuain’s 26th and 27th goals, across competitions, of the season, in the 2-0 win over Chievo.
Theirs is a thriving partnership. “I sometimes get the feeling I have been playing alongside Gonzalo for five years,” said Dybala at the weekend. The duration of the partnership is in fact barely seven months. “We spend time together off the field too, and that helps. We come to training together and that carries over into our work.”
Dybala-Higuain may not quite provoke as much awe as the fabled relationship of Messi with Luis Suarez and Neymar, but the Juve duo approach Tuesday, in contrast to their Barca counterparts, with a spring in their step.
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