Will the streets ever forget Hugo Rodallega? Definitely not in Wigan at least.
The Colombian spent six seasons in the Premier League with Wigan Athletic and Fulham, becoming his country’s second-highest appearance maker (154) in England’s top flight and third-highest scorer (29).
Before all that, though, the 39-year-old, who is still playing today, started off with an almighty bang that saw him compared to arguably the greatest footballer of all time, Lionel Messi.
Rodallega arrived on the scene as a youth player in South America and had his first chance to make an impression at the U20 Copa America – and boy did he do it.
The striker lit up the tournament with a leading 11 goals, helping Colombia to their first trophy in the age group in 18 years.
Breaking through at Deportes Quindio at the time he quickly became the nation’s next great hope, and some tried to pit him against another at the tournament – Lionel Messi.
Messi was already a big name at Barca at the time having debuted for the first team, and sensing a potential rivalry, Rodallega was asked if he was better than the Argentine.
It was reported that he said he was, but the former Latic would clarify what happened many years down the line.
He explained: “That day, the Argentine journalist asked me, ‘Do you think you are the best in the tournament?’ I replied, ‘Not the best in the tournament, but Colombia is first, and I am the top scorer; I feel good about that.’
“Then he asked me, ‘Do you think you are better than Messi?’ and I said, ‘No, I’m the top scorer, but I don’t think I’m better than Messi.’
“The next day, the news was that I claimed to be better.”
That was plenty of pressure on a 19-year-old, but the media’s hope for a rivalry between two of the world’s most passionate footballing countries was put to bed when Argentina beat Colombia to the U20 World Cup in the same year with Messi this time top scorer.
Messi would win the Champions League just a year later with Barca, and in the following years make claim to being a potential great as he added another European Cup, scoring in the final to down Manchester United in 2009.
Earlier that year, after stints with various clubs in Mexico, Rodallega would also join the top level, moving to the Premier League with Wigan in the January window.
It wasn’t long before things got tricky, though, and on one fateful November afternoon less than a year after signing, Rodallega was on the end of a hammering.
The Wigan no.20 took part in a record-breaking match against Tottenham at White Hart Lane in which Spurs went 1-0 up at half-time through Peter Crouch.
In the second-half Wigan scored one, but Spurs added another eight, making the nine goals in the second 45 minutes of the 9-1 defeat a league record.
Having swapped managers in the summer as they transitioned from Steve Bruce to Roberto Martinez, owner Dave Whelan tried to protect his new coach by taking a shot at Bruce’s signings in the winter window.
Whelan blamed the defeat on Bruce making ‘one or two dodgy signings’ before leaving, a remark the coach responded to.
“I had a great relationship with the Wigan chairman and the one thing he was good at was always trying to protect the manager whenever possible, so I haven’t taken offence at what was said,” the then-Sunderland manager commented.
“I was trying to think of the couple of dodgy signings he was on about and I can only think of Hugo Rodallega and Charles N’Zogbia, who were signed at the back end of my time there, and if Wigan want to offload those two then we will be happy to take them.”
Sunderland didn’t take them, though, and instead Rodallega would go on to become Wigan’s all-time top Premier League scorer with 24 goals, playing four seasons before departing for Fulham.
Those two teams face off this weekend in the FA Cup in what may quietly be coined ‘the Hugo Rodallega derby’ as, let’s be honest, it’s not like either team has had many players who have outscored Lionel Messi…