September 17, 1980, Falcao scores his first goal for Roma. Assisted by Ancelotti

On September 17, 1980, the Cup Winners’ Cup was played at the Olimpico in Rome. The Giallorossi host Carl Zeiss Jena, a club from the old GDR that ended up in the Oberliga, but also played international competitions. Now it is in the Regionalliga, the fourth division of German football, to give the dimension of what was an opponent that has never even seen the Bundesliga. In short, not a cup effort, but still an opponent that could cause trouble if things did not go well right from the start.

Paulo Roberto Falcao landed on August 10th in Rome, at Fiumicino, amidst an ecstatic crowd. These were the expectations of a Capital that will live important moments with the “Divine”. Number five shirt, like Junior who will then end up in Turin, almost a baptism: because it is a symbol in Brazilian football, that of the steering wheel, of the deep-lying playmaker. The number ten, obviously, is better known, but Zinedine Zidane and Jude Bellingham chose precisely the number five in their experience at Real Madrid.

The debut had come a few weeks earlier, against Internacional Porto Alegre, in a friendly. Then in the championship against Como, but Falcao’s first goal comes that very evening, against the Germans: Pruzzo heads the ball in, Ancelotti doubles the score, then Falcao stops it with his chest and scores with his right foot in the corner. Twenty-seven goals in one hundred and fifty-two appearances will do the rest.

Rome-Carl Zeiss Jena 3-0
Goalscorers: Pruzzo 5′, Ancelotti 28′, Falcao 71′.

Rome
Tancredi, Spinosi, Romano, Benetti, Falcao, Turone, Conti (Sorbi), Ancelotti, Pruzzo (Scarnecchia), Di Bartolomei, Maggiora.
Trainer: Liederholm.

Carl Zeiss Jena
Grapenthin, Schilling, Hoppe, Weise, Kurbjuweit, Schnuphase, Krause, Lindemann (Senserwald), Raab (Trocha), Toepfer, Vogel.
Trainer: Meyer.