“ Gagliardo's shot hit the left post and the ball sprang back the other way,” the late striker, who is the sixth-highest scorer in Argentine league history with 217 goals, recalled to Clarin in 1998.
There, Estudiantes' 24-year-old striker Ricardo Infante used the technique 25 metres from goal to net his side's third of a 3-0 victory over Rosario Central, writing his own name into the history books in the process. The first rabona goal for which reliable records exist dates back to September 19, 1948, some 60km from Lamela's Buenos Aires birthplace in the city of La Plata. In doing so, he continued a proud Argentine tradition which stretches back almost to the final years of World War II, if not even earlier.
Arsenal later recovered and ran out 2-1 winners, with Lamela making an early exit after seeing red, but the image of his left foot, wrapped around the back of his right shin and propelling the ball towards goal, will endure far longer in the memory.
