This is part 1 of an exclusive interview with Juanjo on his time at Hearts and in Scotland. Part 2 will be released on Monday. Junajo is one of the guests at Big Hearts' Gala.

Big Hearts are operating a silent auction with a number of exciting items such as a signed Marius Zaliukas match-worn top. Bid HERE

The angle of the camera looking toward the Roseburn Stand was perfect.

On the Tynecastle Park pitch, Ian Murray had been shown the door, like an unwelcome visitor ushered out of a house party. At the same time, Pat McGinlay had desperately dived in. The protagonist was a Spaniard wearing Heart of Midlothian maroon and he was on the edge of the Hibs box. The No.20 on his back and tongue folded over on his Puma King boots. 

Juanjo.

Seconds earlier he had been on the ball on the right-hand touchline in front of the 'Bavaria' advertising hoarding of the Main Stand. It was into the 30th minute of the final match of the 36-game 1999/00 season. European football was on the line. Hibs the opponents. It was 0-0.

He ran at an angle... 

In fact, why not let the man himself tell the story?

"I was getting the ball on the right side," he told Hearts Standard. "I started to drive inside with the ball but didn’t see any option, many moves where I can play the ball so kept running.

"Suddenly I just saw a small space, the defender was tracking me, I cut it onto my good leg..."

Back to that camera angle looking toward the Roseburn Stand.

Why is it perfect? Because it shows the perfection of the placement of the shot after cutting onto his right. The curl of the ball into the corner. The helplessness of Nick Colgan.

Adding to that perfection is the reaction of a particular Hibs supporter behind the goal. On seeing the ball caressed carefully into the net they turn away in anguish, hands going up to the head. The mouth opened to scream 'Awwww nooooooo' skyward.

Not that Juanjo was waiting around to see this reaction. He was off toward the corner of the Wheatfield and Roseburn Stands. A celebratory flip included.

"It wasn’t with huge power or anything, it was just the quality of the shot to put it into the side of the post," he said. 

"The emotions and things coming into your head can’t be described. It was such an important time for the club and myself. The joy, I was just over the moon. 

"It was just fantastic. It was a really important game for the club. To go to Europe and have that opportunity is one of the aims of the club."

Tonight, Juanjo, now 47, returns to the scene of the moment that most Hearts fans will gravitate toward when reminiscing about the little, tricky Spaniard. He is one of three guests alongside Bruno Aguiar and Saulius Mikoliunas for the Big Hearts Gala at Tynecastle Park.

His connection with the club is more than 25 years strong, going all the way back to the decision to swap Barcelona for Gorgie in 1998.

Juanjo had been a regular for Barcelona B. He tasted first-team football just once with the Catalan giants, handed his debut by Charles Rexach, coming on as a substitute in a 2-2 draw with Deportivo La Coruna. Bebeto scored twice for Deportivo. Pep Guardiola once for Barca. The other goal scorer was Guillermo Amor, once of Livingston. A substitute for Deportivo was David Fernandez, who would go on to play for Livi, Celtic, Dundee United and Killie.

Bobby Robson would come in then Louis van Gaal but Juanjo saw no future as a first-team player.

It was when Hearts were facing Real Mallorca that Juanjo first heard of interest from Jim Jefferies through his agent. Important to the Hearts legend when signing players, he wanted to see them in action.

(Image: SNS Group)

A release was negotiated with Barcelona to allow Juanjo to become a free agent and a trial was arranged. Not just any trial. Three days after 'Woodwork-gate' and a 1-1 draw in Mallorca, Juanjo would feature against St Johnstone in the league when trialists were still allowed.

Footage can be seen of a 47-wearing 'Carricondo' - the player's surname - driving at the Saints' defence having replaced Jose Quitongo at half time.

"The St Johnstone game was key for the signing because coming on in the second half the supporters and club realised I could do a job for them," Juanjo remembered. 

"It was a great joy. As soon as I came on I was enjoying it with the ball, taking people on. I think the fans really liked that kind of football because it was something different for them. Something attractive, someone who takes people on, goes 1v1 one, crosses the ball. The connection was there."

That exciting cameo wasn't a sign of things to come in the short term. Juanjo was hooked at half time of his next appearance at Ibrox. By the end of 1998, he had come off the bench eight times. He would have to wait more than four months for his next outing. During that time there was the possibility of going on loan to Cowdenbeath on Jefferies' recommendation.

In an interview with The Independent ahead of a derby at the end of 1999, Juanjo recalled he'd have to go back to Spain if that had happened because "if you go to the Third Division in Scotland you are finished".

How did he win Jefferies over? A mixture of patience, hard work, and wearing the manager down.

"He was the type of person who would make you feel confident," Juanjo said of the Scottish Cup-winning manager. "You have to win his approval. At the beginning, it was hard for me to get into the team.

"I was really young, the team wasn’t doing really well in the league and he probably decided to lean on the experienced players in the first few months.

"I was down, couldn't get a game, and wanted to get more minutes. But I understand at the same time. I was really young and wasn’t speaking much English so it was a period of transition for me to Scotland.

"He is such an experienced coach. He probably knows more than me, everything is about the right time, at the right moment. I was really, really pushing in training. I remember talking to him a few times, saying the team wasn’t doing well so why not try me, give me the chance to show that I can help the team or do something different.

"But it was taking a bit longer, he would say ‘Juanjo, you will get your chance, you are doing well, keep training hard’."

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Juanjo can pinpoint the moment it changed for him. The moment he felt like he belonged at Hearts, even if it didn't immediately lead to becoming a regular starter.

"The last few games [of the first season] I got a few minutes and suddenly the pre-season game against Fulham, it was the key game for me to gain that right to play," he said. 

It was another substitute appearance and this time he set up both of Darren Jackson's goals and scored himself as Hearts came from 2-0 down - goals from Geoff Horsefield and Stan Collymore - to win 3-2 in front of nearly 9,000 fans. 

"It was a great feeling to start to feel like myself as a main player on the team," he said.

"The first few months I was upset but that is the transition you sometimes have to go through and to get the experience to be humble, to work hard, to be professional. Even if you are not playing you need to be professional and train at 100 per cent. That’s what will give you the right to get the opportunity."

Juanjo would get more minutes than in his first season but it wasn't until 2000/01 when he became a regular starter. Starting both matches against Stuttgart in the UEFA Cup perhaps demonstrated Jefferies' trust in the winger.

"Jim and Billy [Brown] know for that game I had to be a different player," he explained. "But I was that type of player, from nowhere I can bring something, a goal for myself, an assist, a cross from the side. He knew I could do a lot of things offensively and played me really high that period.

"He was really happy with my performances, my effort, my work. And in the back of the mind something could always happen from my legs."

He added: "I was coming from FC Barcelona where I was a forward player, very offensive-minded. I didn’t have any responsibility to defend in Barcelona, but a freedom to go forward.

"That was probably the thing I had to learn. When I went to Hearts I was playing right midfield, I had to go back to forward and cover all this space. With Barcelona I only had to cover half this space, only going forward. It was the time for me to learn.

"That position in that country, I couldn’t do the same as I was doing in Barcelona so had to do a bit more. Had to do more running, more efforts, help more defensively, and have responsibility.

"I think now because time has passed you realise that maybe when you are young you don't understand that. You just want to play, be selfish. Maybe I wasn’t doing everything right at the time until Jefferies decided it was the right time."

On that Stuttgart game, Juanjo let out a very small chuckle when remembering Gordon Petric's late effort at Tynecastle Park. But he described the occasion as "special"

"It was a fantastic experience, the atmosphere..." he said. "They made you feel like a top professional player and play in Europe against a great side.

"I felt we did fantastic. We had a big go. I felt we performed really well over there. At home, we had hoped to get through. We put everything on the pitch to win 3-2 and we had a couple of chances in the last minutes.

"Gordon Petric… I don’t know, I was behind him. He was controlling the ball and put it in the sky. We had chances until the last minute, with Tynecastle on our backs, we push and push. It was special."

(Image: SNS Group)

Watching a montage of Juanjo goals and moments in maroon it becomes evident that most, if not all occurred at Tynecastle Park. Not only that but two of his 11 goals were towering headers that some of the club's target men in the past would have been proud of.

"One of my handicaps is my height and I wasn’t really good on the headers and high balls," Juanjo reasoned. "I don’t know why or how they happened.

"If you see both of them they were fantastic headers. The best strikers in the world score these headers!

"The right time, the right place. The technique of the goals are fantastic because the jump is powerful the header is powerful as well. I don’t know where they came from!"

What was clear from that time and reading back comments from fans now, there was a lot of love for Juanjo. He was a player younger fans especially gravitated to. He was exotic. A young, tricky winger. He had the tape on his socks and the folded-over tongue on his boots, whether they were Puma Kings or Copa Mundial.

It is perhaps that connection with the fans, given more freedom in games where there is more onus on attack that answers the question of why he performed so well at Tynecastle Park.

"Two years ago we were cleaning up around the house, looking through papers," Juanjo said. "In the Panini [sticker album] it showed fans’ favourite and in my two clubs in Scotland [Hearts and Inverness CT] I was the fans' favourite.

"Probably because of my football, it was something different. I was taking people on, I was tricky and at the time there weren’t many like me in Scottish football. I love it to be honest, every time I’d get the ball you could hear and feel the fans and the anticipation which gives you a boost. 

"My personality, you want to stand out. I’m glad it wasn't just my boots that stood out, it was my football as well. I understand football is entertainment. People pay money for tickets and season tickets to come and see you so if you give them something to feel like the money they paid for the year is worth it because they see something different, attractive and enjoyable, I feel my commodity was there.

"I feel like the supporters were always expecting something was going to happen when the ball was at my feet. There is nothing better for a player than to have that feeling. They are supporting you and expecting you to do something different.

"I always tried when I was on the field and the ball was at my feet, my mentality was for the team and to do my best."

All of that was on show when he picked up the ball on the right-hand touchline in an Edinburgh derby 24 years ago.