The Scot who wrote his name into Barcelona's record books

This presented a formidable enough challenge, so perhaps it's just as well Archibald was not aware of the compatriot in whose footsteps he was following, and who had already distinguished himself as a centre forward for Barca. This Scot had a goal per game average of 1.86, and was then ranked - and still is - in the top three most prolific goalscorers in the club's rich history.

John Patullo was more interested in tennis than football when he impressed while making up the numbers in a match between the Barcelona A and B sides in 1910. Back home Celtic had won the league, and in the 37th Scottish Cup final Dundee had triumphed. But football in Catalonia was still in its infancy, having been brought on the feet of British sailors and merchants. Barcelona were formed at a meeting initiated by the Swiss businessman Joan Gamper, and where an Englishman by the name of Walter Wild was also in attendance.

Patullo made his debut at the Carrer Industria, a 6,000 capacity structure which predated the Nou Camp.

"During a friendly match between the first and second Barcelona teams, John Patullo - who was spectating at the time - was invited to take part to make up the numbers," is how his 'signing' is reported in the Barcelona museum records. "A Barcelona director was watching the friendly match and was surprised at the great skill of this Scottish player, and immediately offered him a contract to play for Barca. Patullo was a good tennis player but had never played football seriously, and yet he accepted the offer to play for the team. In the 1910/11 season he is officially recorded as the top scorer for the team with 41 goals in 20 games. His stay was short-lived, and in 1912, after two more goals, he returned to his own country."

And yet, in this week when Barcelona are based in Scotland, Patullo's contribution has remained unheralded, his story complicated by mystery and a cavalier regard for both nationality and spelling. Barcelona's hefty official history, edited by Jaume Sobreques and published to coincide with the club's centenary, describes Patullo as 'el gran goleador ingles' - the great English goalscorer. There were many British names in Spanish football at the time, and the Spaniards did not necessarily make a distinction between ingleses y escoceses. Indeed, included on the list of 'English' players to have played for Barcelona - one which ends with Gary Linker in the 1980s - are suspiciously Scottish-sounding names, such as Black, Campbell, McKenzie, Steel, Lambe, Leask and Wallace. "The old books say that they were English, but they don't specify the birth places so we are not sure they are English," said Manel Tomas, head archivist at FC Barcelona's Centre for Documentation and Studies.

But the Barcelona record books confirm Patullo is Scottish, and on a wall in the official museum, beneath a saltire, there is proof of Scotland's contribution to Barcelona's storied past. Patullo's name is writ large, beside Archibald and also Geordie Girvan, later to become lord provost of Newmilns.

It is not known exactly where in Scotland that John Patullo came from. Patullo is a less common version of Pattullo, a name derived from Pattillock and which originates from the farmlands of Angus and Fife. Although in the Barcelona records he is referred to as Patullo, in one photograph from 1910, published for the first time here, the 'Pattullo' spelling is displayed. In Spanish and Catalan, where the only common occurrences of double letters are c, r and l, a double t is extremely rare.

Jimmy Burns, author of the acclaimed Barca - A People's Passion, confessed to "over-looking" Patullo when writing his book. "I would have spent more time researching Patullo if I hadn't focused more on early players like [Joan] Gamper and [Arthur] Witty, who between them symbolised the universality of the club's beginnings," said Burns.

But whatever Patullo's background, there can be no denying two things - he was Scottish, and he knew the way to goal. It is for these reasons that the Scottish football museum, based at Hampden Park, is interested in his remarkable story, particularly after the unearthing last month of Real Madrid's lone Scottish player, the Hamilton-born John Fox Watson. "We have a hall of fame gallery called 'Scots Away'," reported Richard McBrearty, the curator. "When it opened we knew Scotland had an important influence in the development of the world game. But we didn't realise how significant it was. It's a great story that a massive club like Barcelona had such a star player in its early period who was Scottish. It's another piece in the jigsaw puzzle we can add to the museum, and one we missed because we did not know he was Scottish. You don't get much bigger than Barcelona. He deserves to have a place in the museum."

Like Archibald, who scored on his league debut against Real Madrid, Patullo made an immediate impression. He struck on his debut in a 1-1 draw with city rivals Espanyol. Football was just as passionate then as in Archibald's day, and reflected the discord of the era. One match between Barcelona and Catala, a team made up of locals and Scottish workers, featured a tackle that Burns described as "the most brutal ever witnessed on Catalan soil". It must have seemed a world away from tennis, the sport in which Patullo had previously proved proficient.

Undeterred, he scored ten times during a fortnight in October 1910, including a double hat-trick in a 15-1 win over Internacionale. "This does not constitute a record," pointed out Toms. "Joan Gamper scored nine goals in one match on three separate occasions. However, the Scot was a worthy successor to the club's founder in the forward line."

His final matches were back-to-back defeats against Espanyol, where, unusually, Barcelona, never mind just Patullo, failed to find the net. But his time at Barca had been an unqualified success, and the club wish to acknowledge his distinction as one of the first, and finest, footballing pioneers in Catalonia.

"There's no doubt that John Patullo is one of the great goalscorers in the history of FC Barcelona," said Toms. "The problem is that he played such a long time ago and, nowadays, only a few devotees of the history of the club have the slightest knowledge of his achievements. However, FC Barcelona is interested in finding out more about this legendary Scottish player and about our links with Scotland, a country that has historical and cultural parallels with Catalonia.

"The FC Barcelona Hall of Fame includes players such as Alcantara, Samitier, Cesar, Ramallets, Kubala, Cruyff, Maradona and Ronaldinho. However, if we are talking about the great goalscorers in the history of Barca, the fact is that Patullo occupies third place in the average ranking, with 43 goals in 23 matches, behind the Catalan Miquel Gual and Joan Gamper. This is an achievement which, in itself, should be reason enough to cement his place in history to the extent that he deserves."

It is telling that not even Archibald, the next Scot to play for Barcelona after a gap of over 70 years, was aware of Patullo's existence. The former Aberdeen striker took a brave move to the Nou Camp in 1984, as one of manager Terry Venables' first signings. Having lost an attempt to claim his favoured No 8 shirt from Bernd Schuster, Archibald had to make do with the No 10 shirt, recently vacated by Maradona.

The prospect did not faze Archibald. With 24 goals in 55 games, he kept up the trend of remarkable goals-per-game ratios enjoyed by Scottish strikers at the club, and was christened 'Archigoles'.

"I think my popularity was because of my success on the pitch rather than my heritage," he told The Scotsman this week. "First and foremost the Catalans will take to you in a footballing sense. Then they might start discovering who you are, and what your background is."

Archibald fitted in well with the Catalan lifestyle and still lives there, but on his arrival had no notion of Patullo's exploits, nor those of other British pioneers at the club. He only knew he was the first British player to play with Barcelona since 1925, and the heat was on. "It's interesting to note there had been other Scots before me," he said. "I would be nice if some others could follow in my footsteps. I did not study the history at all before I came, although I had played for Spurs at the Nou Camp. I was not force-fed in terms of information about the club, but people made it clear what the club was all about in terms of Catalan feeling, and the Franco regime. I knew how Barcelona were important, and more than just a club. I wanted to concentrate strictly on what happened on the football field. The pressure was too much to cope with anything else, and I didn't even bother with the language at first. But after living there, you begin to understand little by little, without forcing the issue and without being a historian, the political situation, and how it could be interpreted as similar to Scotland."

Indeed, Barcelona's decision to travel to the east coast of Scotland for games against Dundee United and Hearts, who they face this afternoon at a healthily attended Murrayfield, has not been based purely on commercial factors. Burns promoted one theory: "This Scottish tour I find very interesting," he said. "While Manchester United are off in Asia and Real Madrid are wherever else, Barcelona, without reading too much into it, seem to be making a political statement. It suits Barcelona to be in Scotland, with whose people they share nationalist aspirations."

Or perhaps they simply wished to visit the land where dwells the spirit of a forefather to their current 'Fantastic Four'. From Patullo to Ronaldinho, by way of Archigoles.

In Monday's Scotsman, Billy Kay pays tribute to the Scottish footballers who influenced the global game.