He hasn’t been playing very well for a while now. It’s been months. Good news. For Barcelona, not for Barcelona’s rivals.
And, if this good situation persists for at least a few more months, it will be good news for the Brazilian team, which is in need of a star who can solve the problem.
Striker Raphinha, 28, is experiencing, individually, the greatest moment of his career.
In the 2024/2025 season, he won the captain’s badge on the Catalunya team, generally worn by those who have the respect of their teammates and fans and have high leadership capacity.
So far, with the season halfway, he has scored 23 goals (in 32 games), 20 for Barça and three for Brazil. For the blue and garnet team, there are eight more assists (goal passes). There were never numbers like that.
Raphinha, who succumbed with the team at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, has always been known for playing on the right wing. It was like that at Leeds, in England, where he stood out from 2020 to 2022 and attracted the attention of Barcelona, who signed him.
And it was like that at Barça until the appearance of the jewel Lamine Yamal, 17, who started to occupy that space. It wasn’t a problem.
The Brazilian changed sides, to the left, playing not only on the wing but with incursions into the midfield (in the frame), and his football prospered. Left-handed, he even seemed more comfortable there.
Vinicius Junior, 24, is also on the left for Real Madrid, today the hottest name in Brazilian football, voted best in the world by FIFA. But the two have different styles.
Vini, from Rio de Janeiro, is more incisive, he likes to dribble at speed and attack his opponents. The gaucho Raphinha, less acute, sees the game better, makes well-oiled passes and precise shots – less fantasy and frivolity, more reasoning and objectivity.
The compatriots dueled this week, on Sunday (12), in the final of the Spanish Super Cup, played in Saudi Arabia. (Why there? For monetary reasons.)
And Raphinha was regal in victory: he reigned majestically on the day that Barça ran over their arch-rival, the all-powerful European and world champion. The number 11 scored two goals (one of them with a header) and set up another goal to make it 5-2.
On the other side, the number 7 did little and ended up being replaced in the 31st minute of the second half, without glamour. Three minutes later, the one who came out, cramped and applauded, was Raphinha, deservedly chosen as the best in the final.
This performance earned the Porto Alegre native widespread praise from the Spanish media.
“Raphinha embodied the role of captain and star, based on effort, intensity and aim. He ran without stopping. In a team with few leaders, the Brazilian stands out a lot”, wrote Fernando Polo in Mundo Deportivo, a Barcelona newspaper , in an article entitled “Raphinha Mentality”.
In the Madrid daily AS, Sergi de Juan, under the title “Raphinha, an unexpected treasure”, recalled that the club considered (in mid-2023) trading him to save money: “Whoever thought of selling him should apologize immediately. And to be grateful that the Brazilian is entering Barcelona’s history like so many players of the same nationality did years ago.”
Evaristo de Macedo (at the end of the 1950s and beginning of the 1960s), Romário, Ronaldo Fenômeno, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho Gaúcho and Neymar, among other Brazilians, shone at Barcelona.
Today, the shine belongs to Raphinha.
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