Eight years ago, in the Uruguayan town of Fray Bentos, word came through that Lucas Torreira was in trouble. Barely a teenager, he had recently left for the bustling city of Montevideo, where he had joined the youth team of Peñarol in pursuit of a professional contract. It was a big club, a big city and a big opportunity. But now little Lucas was a long way from home, and a long way from help.

Torreira was supposed to be lodging in the capital, but it soon emerged that circumstances had changed and accommodation could no longer be provided. All of a sudden, Torreira had nowhere to go and no money to make the 200 mile journey home.

When the news reached the Institución Atlética 18 de Julio, Torreira’s boyhood club, there was no hesitation. “We had a collection between the club’s directors to manage the expenses and the paperwork needed to bring Lucas back,” says Hugo Ruiz, the club’s sporting co-ordinator. “When he became our player again, in the under-15s, I remember seeing on his face a mixture of gratitude and emotion that I still see now.”

That gratitude can also be seen on the back of Torreira’s right leg, where a tattoo of 18 de Julio’s crest is visible whenever he rolls down his socks. “He lived his whole childhood here,” Ruiz told Telegraph Sport. “His love for the club is unconditional.”