Five things you didn't know about Dybala, Barça's Champions League destroyer

After his two goals in Juventus' win over Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-final first leg on Tuesday, the name Paulo Bruno Ezequiel Dybala, born on Nov. 11, 1993, has gripped Europe, catapulting the Argentine forward in the public conscience. 

1. BREAKING KEMPES' RECORD AT Instituto

Instituto Atlético Central de Córdoba, nicknamed Gloria are a modest club in Argentina. It was there where Dybala stood out when he was very small, when his father took him to training every day from his hometown, Laguna Larga, 55kms from Cordoba. 

He joined the club when he was 10, turning up for a trial and being immediately signed by Santos Turza."I just told him to take of the Boca shirt, he couldn't come here with another club's shirt on," Turza remembered. 

At 17, he became the youngest goalscorer in the club's history. In doing so, he took a record previously held by Mario Alberto Kempes, a legend in Argentine football who was also born in the region of Cordoba. Soon after, Dybala signed for Palermo, so he never played in the top flight in his homeland.  

2. DRAMA AS A 15-YEAR-OLD 

When he was 15, in September of 2006, he father, Adolfo, suddenly died. Dybala was tempted to leave football and to stop going to Cordoba every day to training and for a while he did. That decision only lasted for a few weeks, though. The drietors of Instituto convinced him to return. He moved to Cordoba and lived in the club's accomodation in La Agostina. He returned to football with more determination than ever. 

"When I enter the pitch I ask for strength from my old man and if I score, I thank him, because I am sure he must me helping me a lot from up there," the Juve man explained. He has two older brothers, Gustavo and Mariano, amateur footballers, who help his mum, Alicia, manager the administartion of the lottery in his hometown, Laguna Larga. His grandfather, Boreslaw Dybala, was born in Poland, so he has a Polish passport to play in Europe.  

3. 'THE GEM' OF COrdoba

No-one knows about Dybala's career better than the Argentine journalist Marcos Villalobo. In the second game Dybala played for Instituto, he was named 'La Joya' (The Gem) by the journalist, who predicted a big future. He wasn't wrong. "Seeing him striker the ball caught the attention. He was a rough diamond and I began to call him La Joya in all the titles,"  Villalobo said. 

The fans of the club liked it, used it online and it became popular. The nickname is still present today to the point that even his team-mates call him Joya. "Before games, Bonucci often says to me, 'vamos, Joya, today we have to win," Dybala said in an interview with El Grafico.  

4. The NO.21 SHIRT

In the summer of 2015, Juventus paid 32 million to Palermo for his transfer. He became the eighth most expensive Argentine in history. Upon his arrival in Turin, he quickly chose the No.21 shirt, which had been left free by Pirlo. It was also Zidane's shirt number at the club. 

It filled Dybala with motivation. "At Instituto I always played with No.9. At Palermo, too, and when I arrived here it was taken by Morata and he wanted to keep it. Pirlo had just left, an idol who was wearing [No.21]. The No.21 is like the No.10 at Juve, an important number. It was a test because I wanted to test myself against the weight of a number that represents so many thins here."  

5. Riquelme & Ronaldinho, HIS FIRST IDOLS

"When I was a boy I wanted to be like Riquelme and Ronaldinho”, Dybala confessed to El País. The forward is also a self-confessed Messi fan, who he has trained and played with for the Argentine national team.