It happened on 9 May 2007: a corner taken directly, curling through the legs of Vélez goalkeeper Sebastián Peratta in a Copa Libertadores last-16 tie at José Amalfitani. That same night, in a house in Villa Udaondo, Tomás Leandro Aranda came into the world.
"He was born with a blessing," his mother said. Eighteen years on, having grown up idolising the man who would go on to become Boca's president, Aranda made his first start for the club — against Lanús, at La Bombonera.
The path there began years earlier at Academia Kaly and Defensores de Castelar, before Boca's academy picked him up. His nickname, "Chicle" — bubblegum — has nothing to do with his playing style; Argentina youth coach Lionel Scaloni revealed during a national squad call-up that Aranda trained and even walked onto the pitch chewing gum, a habit team-mate Thiago Almada turned into a nickname that stuck.
The breakthrough, when it came, arrived fast. Aranda made his first-team debut as a substitute against Estudiantes on 28 January 2026, given just three minutes on the pitch. Ten appearances later, in his tenth match for the club, he scored his first senior goal — a left-footed strike into the far corner against Instituto at La Bombonera on 22 March, after cutting inside from the left and shifting the ball onto his stronger foot.
He dropped to his knees in tears; captain Leandro Paredes ran the length of the pitch to reach him, waited for the group celebration to clear, then hoisted the teenager onto his back so the whole stadium could applaud him. Argentina youth coach Lionel Scaloni was watching closely enough to call him up to the national Under-20 squad within days.
"It's a really nice emergence, a very interesting one," Scaloni said.
Blas Giunta, a former Boca midfielder now working as a scout, remembers the exact moment he saw something familiar in a ninth-division match years before Aranda reached the first team.
"I saw him and said: this is Román," Giunta told Olé, recalling a goal at Talleres' ground. "He scored a goal very similar to what Román used to do."
Néstor Gorosito, the veteran coach and TyC Sports pundit, reached for a different comparison this year: "Aranda is a lot like Iniesta. He plays it simple, he knows when to dribble and when not to, when to play first-time, and he can use both feet."
Riquelme himself has been careful not to let those comparisons run away with anyone.
"Aranda is a kid with a lot of technique and ability, it comes naturally to him," the Boca president said on TyC Sports, after fans began comparing the teenager to Lionel Messi following a breakout performance.
"We have to look after him, support him — everyone's already calling him the 'new Messi'. They're starting to guess at things. We need to leave them in peace."
When Aranda missed a decisive penalty in a Copa Sudamericana shootout against O'Higgins, Riquelme again declined to pile on publicly.
"I'm not a coach, I'm a director," he said. "As a director, I try to help — to make sure the boys are okay, that the coach has a good squad."
Head coach Rodolfo Arruabarrena, who handed Aranda the number 10 shirt, has been similarly protective while making no secret of what he sees in him.
"Tomi is a different kind of player, a smart kid," Arruabarrena said after a win over Sarmiento. "He's had situations in four months that aren't normal for any player, and he's dealt with them with spectacular strength of character. I hope he keeps on this path — for us, he's important."
He went further on the subject of managing the hype: "I'd say to his agent: be careful, look after him properly, because everyone's going to come calling now. I'm calm about that side of it — he's a product of this house, and I hope to have him for a long time."
Even Boca idols from outside the current set-up have taken notice. Carlos Tevez, watching from afar, praised the emergence of Aranda alongside fellow academy graduate Leonel Flores.
"I'm delighted with the kids who've made their debuts," Tevez said. "It's not normal for players to get that strong in so little time. They're serious about this, and I hope they keep going the same way and keep making Boca's fans happy."
On the pitch, the qualities that prompted the Iniesta and Riquelme comparisons are visible in how little the game seems to speed him up. At 1.75m and comfortable on both feet, Aranda operates as a free-roaming attacking midfielder rather than a fixed number 10, dropping into pockets to receive on the half-turn and using close control to draw fouls rather than force the pass early — closer, in tempo if not yet end product, to a young Riquelme dictating a match from a standing position than to a more explosive, box-crashing enganche.
That profile hasn't gone unnoticed outside Argentina. Within months of his breakthrough, Argentine outlets were reporting scouting interest from a wide spread of European clubs — Manchester City's ownership group, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Chelsea, Como and Fiorentina have all been credited with tracking him at various points this year, according to Boca's own beat reporters.
Riquelme's response has been consistent throughout: fix a release clause high enough to make an early move expensive, and let Aranda develop at home in the meantime. Reported figures for that clause have varied by outlet — from around $20m to €17m — but the message from Boca's president has stayed the same whenever a new suitor is mentioned: any club interested pays what the contract says, or it doesn't happen.
Chelsea are reported to be the club still circling most closely even now, with informal interest said to persist into a possible move once Aranda is back playing in 2027 — though, as with every reported approach so far, no formal offer has been placed on the table.
The rise has not been without setbacks. Aranda suffered a fractured right fibula during a training session at Boca's Ezeiza complex in late August, an injury serious enough to require surgery and rule him out until 2027.
Captain Leandro Paredes, a World Cup winner and one of the first team-mates to react, posted a photo of Aranda with a simple message: "Strength, Joya, we're all with you."
Arruabarrena dedicated the team's next win, over Lanús, to him directly from the press conference: "This win is for Tomi. The lads will have been in touch with him, and we'll see him back at the training ground soon enough."
For now, the shirt he made his own sits waiting. Everyone around Aranda, from the president who once played the same role for Boca to the coach protecting him from outside noise, seems to agree on the timeline: get him right, keep the pressure at arm's length, and let the football speak for itself when he's back.