One pre-season with Barcelona's first team was all Hamza Abdelkarim needed to catch the eye, first of his team-mates and then of his coaches. The young Egyptian forward is no longer a rising talent waiting for his chance. He has forced his way firmly into Hansi Flick's plans ahead of the new season.
Eric Garcia laid bare the scale of the surprise Hamza has caused inside the dressing room. The Barcelona defender admitted he did not know the Egyptian before pre-season, then went on to express his great admiration for what he has produced over recent weeks.
"I didn't know him, and he surprised me," Garcia said of Hamza, before adding a more important message for the young forward: "If he keeps working this way, he will become a very important striker in the future."
Those remarks, reported by the newspaper "Mundo Deportivo", followed the Al Ahly match in the Joan Gamper Trophy. Hamza scored the opening goal for the Catalan side against his former club, on a night of special significance for a player who, only a few months ago, did not even have a regular presence with Al Ahly's first team.
Hamza did not just leave his mark inside the dressing room, according to the newspaper. He produced numbers that made him harder to ignore. He scored against Al Ahly after starting the match, played 73 minutes and reached four goals in three pre-season games, becoming one of the most prominent faces to emerge from Barcelona's preparations.
Most of those goals reflect the qualities of the out-and-out striker Flick is looking for. He moves constantly inside the penalty area and knows how to appear in the right place the moment the ball arrives, a point the German coach praised after the player's brace against Birmingham.
"As a striker, you have to appear inside the penalty area, and that is what he did today. That is what I ask of a number 9," Flick said at the time.
You can discuss topics and news in greater depth in the Kooora forums
The newspaper stressed that the Egyptian's brilliance came at a hugely important time. Barcelona are still searching for a new striker during the transfer window, which means the competition for the "9" role has not yet been settled.
The club continues to study its options up front, and all the while Hamza keeps handing Flick new reasons to think of him as a genuine solution, not just a young player getting minutes during preparatory matches.
So the question now, "Mundo Deportivo" suggests, is whether what Hamza produced during pre-season is enough to earn him a real chance in the striker's role for the league opener against Elche on Sunday.
There is an important paradox, though. For all this brilliance, Hamza has not yet played an official match with Barcelona's first team. He has not even made his official debut with the reserve team, which makes the decision to start him against Elche a big step for Flick.