Alessandro Del Piero had been a Juventus player for little more than a week when the first goal arrived.
Against Reggiana in September 1993, the 18-year-old came off the bench late in a 4–0 victory and scored almost immediately. Fabrizio Ravanelli, Andreas Möller and Roberto Baggio had already found the net before Del Piero added the fourth.
At the time, the hierarchy was obvious. Baggio was the reigning Ballon d’Or winner and the reference point of the Juventus attack. Del Piero had arrived from Padova that summer and was making only his second Serie A appearance, one week after his debut.
That is what makes the photograph of this period so compelling now. Before Del Piero became Juventus captain, before the No.10 became inseparable from his name, he was the teenager entering a team that already belonged to another great Italian No.10.
The balance would change quickly.
Del Piero spent 19 seasons with Juventus, becoming captain and finishing with a club-record 705 appearances and 290 goals. His career with Italy would eventually take him to Berlin in 2006 and a World Cup triumph.
But none of that existed yet against Reggiana.
There was Baggio, already established among the great figures of Italian football, and Del Piero, 18 years old and only beginning to make himself known.
Then came the first goal.
Juventus could not have known it that afternoon, but the teenager who scored their fourth was beginning a relationship with the club that would outlast every other player on the pitch.
