Malcom leads Al Hilal quadruple bid in absence of injured Neymar

In Barcelona, they remember Malcom for his tears. They flowed, uncontainable, on the night he thought all his dreams were coming true.

He was a 21 year old who had just scored his first goal for the club where his heroes used to play. He had done it at San Siro, a grand setting, in the European Champions League. And he had only been on the pitch, a late substitute, for two minutes.

It was an elegant finish, the strike to put the Barcelona of 2018/19 a goal up against Inter Milan, a neat switch on his favoured left foot and a pinpoint shot.

That’s the same cutback manoeuvre, shifting right to left to put a close marker off balance that is now a widely recognised Malcom trademark.

Last Thursday, in Abu Dhabi, he inflicted something similar on Al Ittihad’s Ahmed Hegazi ahead of the third goal of Al Hilal’s 4-1 victory in the Saudi Super Cup final.

After that one, the celebration included no tears, but not much restraint either. Malcom stripped off his Al Hilal jersey at the cost of a yellow card. He has always been an expressive footballer, exuberant in his successes, and less than stoic when fortunes have turned against him.

Those tears at San Siro five seasons ago were a snapshot of momentary fulfilment in what would be a frustrating chapter of a career that has traversed many peaks and troughs.

Its highs would include the decisive goal for Brazil in an Olympic gold medal match; a goal for Barca against Real Madrid on his clasico debut; and, aged just 20, one the finest long-range goals in France’s Ligue 1 of the past decade, the rocket he scored for Bordeaux against Dijon.

That teary night at San Siro also felt special. Malcom called his mother back home in Brazil as soon as he reached the dressing-room.

What his family