Jonathan Calleri returns to La Bombonera with Sao Paulo to face Boca in Copa Sudamericana quarterfinals

Some rabonas get forgotten within five minutes, and then there's the one still remembered at La Bombonera almost a decade later. Jonathan Calleri's effort against Quilmes, back in July 2015, falls into that second category. Now that same forward will step back into Boca's stadium, only this time he'll walk through the visitors' tunnel wearing the shirt of Sao Paulo, tasked with eliminating the club that made him.

The matchup comes in the Copa Sudamericana quarterfinals and carries a special edge: Calleri is now captain and a key figure for the Sao Paulo side, but before that he was one of the standout players on Boca's 2015 championship team. His story with the club began in 2014, when he arrived from All Boys and made his official debut on July 26 of that year. It didn't take long for him to go from squad option to undisputed starter.

The path wasn't a straight line, though. For a good part of the first half of 2015 he had to wait his turn behind Daniel Osvaldo. But in the second half of the year he earned a spot he never gave up, ending up as the top scorer for that Boca side managed by Rodolfo Arruabarrena. The numbers back up the memory: 61 official matches, 23 goals and 12 assists, with three goals in the 2015 Copa Libertadores and ten in the domestic league. That output helped him lift two trophies that year: the Primera Division championship and the Copa Argentina.

Of everything from that run, one moment stands above the rest. That night against Quilmes, with Carlos Tevez freshly back from Europe and Diego Maradona watching from a box, Calleri had the nerve to finish with a rabona. The goal has been etched in memory as one of the signature images of his time at Boca.

It's the best memory I have wearing the Boca shirtJonathan Calleri

From Boca to the world, and back to Sao Paulo

Champion and fully established, Calleri made the jump in early 2016, joining Sao Paulo and from there building a career that took him through West Ham, Las Palmas, Alaves, Espanyol and Osasuna. His return to the Brazilian club ended up being the defining chapter: today he's one of the most important foreign players in the institution's recent history, he's renewed his contract, and he's already passed 260 matches in that shirt.

That path is what now brings him back to La Bombonera, almost eleven years after winning a title there. The forward himself doesn't hide what this matchup means, even though his present sits on the other side.

I'm a Sao Paulo fan. I've been living this story for 10 years and I'm very happy here. But this is a very special game for meJonathan Calleri

The Copa Sudamericana quarterfinal series will put Calleri face to face with his own past, on the very field where a rabona made him unforgettable to Boca fans. This time, he'll be writing the script in different colors.