From Buenos Aires to Hong Kong, Facundo Aranda has carried an early Boca Juniors education into a football life far from Brandsen 805, where the Argentine began his path in the game.
Aranda, now making his mark in Hong Kong, looks back on his formative time with Boca and the support he received from Carlos Tevez during the pandemic. The former Argentina forward offered him a helping hand in an uncertain period for footballers across the continent.
The move to East Asia has opened a different chapter for Aranda, whose career now unfolds in one of the region’s increasingly international club scenes. His progress in Hong Kong has also brought the prospect of a remarkable occasion: the possibility of facing Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.
A Boca beginning and an Asian chapter
Known at Boca as the Xeneize, the Buenos Aires club was Aranda’s first major football reference point. His time around the club’s famous home on Brandsen 805 gave him an early connection to one of South America’s most demanding environments.
Today, his story sits within the wider Argentine football diaspora, with players from the country continuing to build careers in leagues well beyond South America and Europe. For Aranda, Hong Kong has become the setting for a rise that began in Boca’s orbit and has taken him towards a potential meeting with one of the modern game’s biggest names.
