Sevilla’s Colombian striker Carlos Bacca was a late developer. At age 20, he made a living working as a bus conductor and selling fish in his home village of Puerto Colombia, but dreamed of being a professional footballer.
Bacca became a professional at 23 with Atletico Junior.
On Wednesday night, at age 28, Sevilla’s top scorer will play in a second successive Europa League final, this time against Ukraine side Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, in Warsaw.
The Andalusians are aiming to become the first team to win the competition, formerly known as the Uefa Cup, for a record fourth time.
Victory would guarantee a passage into next season’s Uefa Champions League, but they have most impressed in the European club football’s second biggest competition, having won in 2006, 2007 and 2014.
Liverpool, Inter Milan and Juventus have all won the competition three times, too.
Even if they lose in Poland against a team in their first European final, Sevilla will, at the very least, be back in next season’s Europa League after another impressive campaign in Primera Liga saw them finish fifth.
No Spanish team has lost to a foreign side in a Europa League final and Unai Emery’s team are unbeaten in nine games in European competition.
Bacca is the only player to have featured in all 14 of their Europa League games and has played more European games than any other Colombian.
He could become only the third player from the South American country to win the competition a third time after Faustino Asprilla and Radamel Falcao.
Initially having impressed at Belgian side Club Brugge, the deeply religious Bacca joined Sevilla in 2013 for a €6 million (Dh24m) fee.
He made the first of 29 appearances for the Colombia national team in 2010, playing alongside his regular strike partner Falcao.
As James Rodriguez stole the headlines in Brazil 2014, Bacca made just one appearance in his country’s most successful finals appearance, winning a penalty in the quarter-final against Brazil.
Bacca who came from a poor family and has, without elaborating, admitted to doing things in his past that he regrets — had moved to Europe for €1.5m in January 2012 from Atletico Junior, where he had been the top scorer in Colombia in winning successive titles.
After bedding in during the final months of the Belgium top-flight 2011/12 season, he was a huge success the following term as he finished as the top scorer for his Brugge team and in the Pro League with 25.
It was that form that prompted Sevilla to swoop.
Emery plays him as the team’s leading striker, sometimes with Kevin Gameiro.
In his first season in Spain, Bacca scored 14 in Primera Liga while Gameiro got 15. Bacca scored twice in a 2-1 win against Real Madrid in March 2014 and Marca, the Spanish national daily newspaper, voted him the best new signing of the season.
He has been Sevilla’s leading light this term and is his club’s top scorer with 20 league goals. He has also added five more in the Europa League, while nine assists brought further value to his team.
If there are criticisms of Bacca it is that too often he is caught offside, but he is surrounded by attacking players who have enjoyed excellent seasons including Aleix Vidal.
Sevilla are a selling club and will do well to hold on to both this summer.
The Andalusians, who will have the support of 16,000 travelling fans in Warsaw, have already eliminated Borussia Monchengladbach, Villarreal, Zenit St Petersburg and they beat Fiorentina home and away in the semi-final.
Such results have Emery in the mix to lead AC Milan forward, while Newcastle United are also interested in him.
Clubs value his tactical know-how and how he gets the best out of those players viewed as problematic such as Ever Banega and Bacca, while his sides play attractive football, too.
Sevilla have another chance to showcase those talents.
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