Malcom’s moment finally arrived on Tuesday. The Brazilian winger was brought off the bench in the closing stages against Inter Milan at the San Siro and almost immediately provided what his Barcelona team-mates could not – a goal.

The Brazilian winger replaced Ousmane Dembele with nine minutes left and made an instant impact. The 21-year-old found space down the right, before cutting inside, jinking one way and another and then slotting a precise left-footed shot into the corner from the edge of the area.

Not even he could believe it. The former Bordeaux player went to the corner flag, held his head and burst into tears. Clearly, this meant a lot – and why wouldn’t it?

Malcom has had a tough time since joining Barca. The Brazilian had been on the verge of moving to Roma in the summer, but chose the Catalans instead at the last minute and has endured ridicule from some quarters for opting to sign for a team seemingly above his level.

But he has kept working. Despite some unhelpful reports in the Catalan media regarding his situation and also his state of mind, the 21-year-old has maintained that it is his desire to stay and succeed at Camp Nou.

On Tuesday, he received his reward. “It’s the most important goal of my career,” he said after the game. Unfortunately for Barca, though, it was not quite enough to secure a victory as Mauro Icardi levelled a few minutes later and the match finished 1-1.

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Ernesto Valverde’s side should really have won it comfortably, but chances came and went for Luis Suarez, Philippe Coutinho, Dembele and others. Nobody took theirs; only Malcom.

“We were failing to hit the target,” Valverde admitted. “Malcom is a player who shoots well with his left foot. He came on and scored almost with his first touch. We are happy for him.”

Sergio Busquets echoed those thoughts. “We’re all really happy for him,” he said. “It’s emotional to see his tears. He’s not playing as much as he wants, but he works as hard as anyone. He’s a great kid. He will help us a lot.”

One of Barca’s big mistakes last season was not rotating players sufficiently and then suffering from tiredness towards the end of the season in the Champions League. This term, though, the squad is significantly stronger and Malcom should have a part to play.

With Lionel Messi set to return following his injury absence, opportunities may be infrequent again for the Brazilian, yet he showed at San Siro why Barca signed him in the first place and he can be useful for Valverde for the remainder of the campaign.

“Malcom exists!” Sport said, somewhat amusingly, on their front page on Wednesday morning. Indeed, for much of this season he had been Barca’s forgotten man, left out of squads altogether or not even on the bench at times.

But after last week’s story in Mundo Deportivo claiming the club were concerned by his “mental state”, he said on Instagram: “I’m going to continue fighting for everything I want in my career.” On Tuesday night in Milan, that effort finally began to pay off.