What about Estevao? The kind of question that echoes down the generations, put by awed youngsters discussing the big talking points from the night before with elders who thought they had seen it all.
Two decades ago the question was, “what about Ronaldo?” after a little known 18-year-old made his debut for Manchester United against Bolton in 2003. Yes, United were a thing back then and Cristiano Ronaldo hit with the velocity of a rocket.
He had signed only three days prior, prompted by the glowing reviews of the senior United players who faced him in a pre-season friendly against Sporting Lisbon.
Coming on with half an hour to go, the defending champions led by a single goal. When the final whistle went the scoreboard had ticked over three times to four, but the goals were the least of it.
Old Trafford had witnessed the birthing of a global superstar, a player who glowed hotter in a 30-minute cameo than the parade of stars in the United galaxy.
Ryan Giggs, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Paul Scholes all scored for peak United that day, yet the question on everybody’s lips was “what about Ronaldo?”, just as it is today after the remarkable performance of Estevao on a thrilling Champions League night at Stamford Bridge.
The arrival of Barcelona and that other teenage phenom Lamine Yamal layered the fixture in wonderkid vibes, but the Estevao imprint had to yet to acquire the force of the Barcelona prodigy. That takes time. And goals. And big moments in big matches.
Well, Estevao is big now, his reputation going lunar with one emphatic shake of his right peg, wriggling through gaps that weren’t there to blow Barcelona away and send shivers down the spine of the global game.
Estê ̶v̶ã̶o̶WOW
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A super goal from Chelsea's young Brazilian to make it 2-0!pic.twitter.com/B8NJlt4Xby
The goal, his third in successive Champions League starts since debut achieved something Yamal, even with his impressive portfolio never managed, tracing the great Kylian Mbappe’s productive arc on debut.
Mbappe was three months younger when he began his scoring spree against Manchester City in April 2017, scoring seven in his first eight starts. Estevao will take the proximity and the comparison.
He stops time with every touch of the ball. As Ronaldo did, Estevao embroiders inputs with pacey audacity, stepovers, shimmies, frequently to excess, but when the moves come off, the universe is his and nothing seems impossible.
The power of the new is necessarily overwhelming when it lands with such force. Yamal had his angles shut down by the sending off late in the first half of Barca skipper Ronald Araujo.
A goal down, Barca’s highline was already creaking. It simply could not contain the Brazilian tyro thereafter, and Lamal, who’s left foot had twinkled episodically, was downgraded as a consequence.
There were others who shone, not least the left-backs tasked with containing the youthful wonders. Wayne Rooney made Marc Cucurella the man of the match for the jailing of Yamal and on the other side of the pitch Barca’s 22-year-old left-back Alejandro Balde looked capable of stepping into Yamal’s offensive shoes so beautifully poised was he in possession and rapid in motion.
It was that kind of night, the histories of storied clubs colliding under lights to create a sense of anticipation all its own.
These are the moments that lift already extraordinary humans into that rare dimension that beguiles us all, triggering a sense of rapture at the thrill of it all, the endeavour, artistry, athleticism, grace and power of it all delivered in the most demanding circumstances under the gaze of millions.
And at the end of it, floating above the jumble of impressions, the elements supercharged by brilliance settle upon us, prompting the only questions that matter in life. What about Ronaldo? What about Estevao?
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