Let's Be Real About Raphinha transcript

If you told people in the summer of 2024 that Raphinha would become the captain of Barcelona and their talisman, they would have laughed in your face. Except you fast forward and Raphinha has become everything that Barcelona needed from him. >> Here's Raphinha. IT'S A ONE-ON-ONE WITH MANUEL NEUER. CAN HE FINISH IT OFF? AND YES, HE DOES. Left-footed strike FROM HIM TO SCORE. BARCA HAVE SNATCHED THE VICTORY LATE ON. IT'S RAPHINHA. >> Raphinha is a leader. >> It's him again. >> He could play for any top four team in the world.

No no question. You would hate to play against him. >> The captain. >> And one of the most dangerous attackers in the world under Hansi Flick. >> a lot about Raphinha when he was injured last season and about how Barcelona aren't the same team without him. >> We all thought he was good as a left winger. Now he's become one of the most lethal strikers in world football. >> What striker in the world, you pick it, whoever, could do that better than what Raphinha did just there?

I don't think you can find one. >> At a time where everyone was wondering what Barca were going to do up front, Raphinha became the answer. But what makes his story so interesting is that it wasn't that long ago that he had one foot out the door. Back when people wanted to see Nico Williams instead of him. That's right. The man leading Barcelona is someone that the club wasn't sure they wanted to keep. Most world-class Brazilian footballers were seen as prodigies from a young age.

But, not Raphinha. Raphinha's story started in Hestinga, a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. >> [singing] [music] >> He grew up in a small home with his parents, his younger brother, and their pets. His family did not have much money. >> [music] >> His father was a drummer who played in a local samba band, and through him, Raphinha got the chance to meet Ronaldinho when he was still a kid. He even attended one of Ronaldinho's birthday parties when he was around 7 years old.

Thankfully, it wasn't a diddy party. Say "Ooh." But, Raphinha's own football education was very different than the journey that Ronaldinho went through to get to Barcelona. A lot of his development came through playing varzea football. These were rough community games played on dirt pitches. Sometimes, there were barely proper kits. Supporters would be standing right next to the pitch, screaming at you, and the games could become incredibly physical.

They were like Real Madrid training sessions. Actually, the Madrid training sessions are probably worse because at least in the streets of Brazil, they try and play football. In Real Madrid, it's a boxing locker room. Those matches helped give Raphinha the confidence and toughness that would eventually become such a big part of his game. >> [music] [music] >> psychological things that you have to learn as a football player. can still see it in the way that he plays now.

He has always been willing to fight for the ball, run himself into the ground. The guy bleeds for the bat. But at the time when he was young, getting noticed by a professional club was very hard. Raphinha was rejected by some of the biggest clubs in his area, including Grêmio and Internacional. Growing up where he did, Raphinha saw firsthand what happened to talented kids who didn't make it in football. He has spoken about watching players who were talented as him, sometimes even more talented, slowly give up on the dream.

Some ended up around drugs and crime, but Raphinha kept going. He bounced around smaller clubs, continued playing wherever he could, and eventually got an opportunity with Avaí. Avaí was Raphinha's lifeline. By the time he joined the club, he was already 18 years old. That's an age that's ridiculously young in normal life, but when it comes to football, and especially Brazilian football, if you don't come out of the womb doing elastico's, you're cooked.

By 18, teenagers are already considered uncs in the favelas. The biggest Brazilian talents are usually well known by that age. Some are already playing first team football, while others are being linked with moves to Europe. Raphinha was still trying to prove that he could even have a professional career. And even at Avaí, things did not immediately go his way. Injuries caused problems, and he struggled to get consistent playing time.

But Raphinha kept working. He got stronger and waited for an opportunity to show what he could do. The opportunity eventually came at the 2016 Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior, one of the biggest youth tournaments in Brazil. And Raphinha took full advantage of this. He was fast and had the confidence to go at defenders whenever he got the ball. He also could actually beat the defender that was defending him. You know, the complete opposite of Vini post-chin operation.

And one of the people watching him play happened to be Deco. Yes, that Deco. The former Barcelona and Portugal midfielder had moved into football agency after retiring, and he saw something in Raphinha that plenty of Brazilian clubs had missed. Deco would sign him to his agency and suddenly Raphinha had someone with serious connections in European football helping him find his next move. Within weeks, an opportunity arrived from Portugal.

The Vitória de Guimarães wanted him. Portugal was where Raphinha really got his first taste of professional football. When he arrived at Vitória de Guimarães in 2016, he initially joined their B team. But it didn't take him long to start moving up. By the 2017-2018 season, Raphinha had become one of Vitória's most important attacking players. He scored 18 goals in 43 appearances across all competitions and was named the club's breakthrough player of the year.

For someone who had been struggling to just get noticed in Brazil a few years ago, things were moving very quickly. He was also getting his first experience in European football playing in the Europa League and bigger clubs were starting to notice him. In 2018, Sporting signed Raphinha to a five-year contract. This was another massive jump. Sporting were one of the biggest clubs in Portugal and Raphinha was expected to perform for a team competing for trophies.

His season was interrupted by a muscle injury, but he still made 36 appearances in all competitions and scored seven goals. The end product was not always consistent, but to be fair, it wouldn't get consistent until he teamed up with Flick. Raphinha helped Sporting win both the Taça de Portugal and Taça da Liga. In the Portuguese Cup final against Porto, Raphinha stepped up and scored during the penalty shootout. He pulled the CR7 special.

Do nothing for 120 minutes, score the winning penalty, take all the credit. But that season was important for Raphinha. He was playing for a massive club, competing in Europe, and experiencing the pressure that came with being expected to win every week. And after only one year at Sporting, another opportunity arrived. This time, Raphinha was leaving Portugal altogether. Rennes wanted him in France. In the summer of 2019, Rennes paid 21 million euros for Raphinha, making him the most expensive signing in the club's history at the time.

That was a lot of money for a winger who was coming from Portugal and who wasn't really talked about or heard about in France, but very quickly they would remember his name. Raphinha was given the number seven shirt and slowly started becoming one of the most dangerous players in Rennes attack. His first goal came against Amiens when he finished off a 3-1 win. But the game that really made Rennes supporters fall in love with him came a couple of months later.

It was Rennes against Nantes. This was the Derby Breton, one of the biggest games on the calendar for both clubs and Raphinha went crazy. >> Yeah, to level it. DENIED BY THE FOLLOW-UP. AND RAPHINHA GETS THE GOAL. >> WELL, YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE THE ONE TO TAKE IT. Just as long as you make it. It's one all. >> He scored twice including a dramatic winner deep into stoppage time to complete a 3-2 comeback. He finished the campaign with eight goals and seven assists across all competition.

The stats look laughable now considering how much better Raphinha has gone, but at the time he did help Rennes finish third in Ligue 1. For the first time in the club's history, they had qualified for the Champions League. Now you would think that he would stick around to experience it. He didn't because just before Rennes were about to begin their Champions League campaign, the Premier League came calling and Marcelo Bielsa wanted him at Leeds.

So in October of 2020, Leeds paid around 17 million pounds to sign Raphinha from Rennes. And there were definitely some questions about the move. Leeds had just been promoted back to the Premier League and Raphinha was arriving from France without much hype around him in England. But he adapted pretty quickly. Raphinha was perfect for the chaotic football Bielsa liked to play. He would press, track back, run constantly, and then as soon as Leeds won the ball, he wanted to attack.

His first Premier League goal came away against Everton. Raphinha picked up the ball outside the box and drilled a shot into the bottom corner to give Leeds a 1-0 win. >> TRIES A SHOT. OH MY WORD. WHAT A GOAL FROM RAPHINHA. >> [screaming] >> IT WAS actually their first league victory at Goodison Park since 1990. >> You know, it's a special moment for Rafa. You know, I've been been telling him he's going to score a goal, he's going to score a goal whenever he gets a chance and you know, he's come close the last few weeks, but you know, I finally got one today. >> And from there, Leeds fans started seeing how entertaining this guy could be.

I mean, at the end of the day, he is Brazilian. >> Raphinha would try no-look passes, nutmeg defenders, shoot from distance, and constantly take players on. >> The Oi Bros in England thought they were watching witchcraft. And unlike earlier in his career, Raphinha was starting to become the main guy. By his second season, he was Leeds' biggest attacking threat. >> The problem was that Leeds themselves were falling apart.

Injuries destroyed the squad. Bielsa was eventually sacked, and Leeds spent most of the 2021-2022 season fighting relegation. Raphinha though, was still producing. He finished the Premier League season as Leeds' top goal scorer with 11 goals. But going into the final day, there was a real chance of them going down. Leeds traveled to Brentford knowing they needed a result, while also hoping that Burnley slipped up against Newcastle.

Then in the 56th minute, Leeds won a penalty. >> It's a penalty It's a penalty to Leeds. RAYAN RAPHINHA after making an error, AND LEEDS UNITED HAVE A PENALTY KICK HERE. >> Raphinha stepped up. >> Strikes the ball. RAPHINHA SCORES! >> [screaming] >> RAPHINHA HAS PUT LEEDS UNITED IN FRONT HERE! A MASSIVE GOAL! >> Raphinha's penalty ended up being his final goal for the club, because by this point, some much bigger teams were interested.

But it had been a pretty important two years for him. He arrived as a relatively unknown winger from Rennes, and left as a Brazilian international who had just proven himself in the Premier League. He even got married during his time at Leeds. But he did more in two years than I've done in my whole life. And in the summer of 2022, he was finally going to get the move that he had always dreamt about. For Raphinha, the dream was always Barca.

Makes sense. Barcelona have a long history of Brazilian stars. From Romário and Rivaldo to Ronaldinho and Neymar. >> This is driven by the player. And sometimes we talk about the power of players. He wants to go to Barcelona. There are other options out there. Chelsea being one of those main options. >> Chelsea had agreed a deal with Leeds. Arsenal were interested as well, but Raphinha was willing to wait because Barca was where he wanted to be. >> This is an interesting one, isn't it with Raphinha?

We've seen plenty of clubs linked. It's big money. Chelsea prepared to pay over 50 million for him. Could Barcelona hijack this move, do you think? >> Eventually, Barcelona paid close to 60 million euros to sign him in the summer of 2022. >> Well, it looks like Raphinha is set to join Barcelona soon. >> What this is all about the player, the player had set his heart on the move to Barcelona. >> Barcelona were thinking that if Leeds were relegated, his price was lowered and they could afford that. >> A big gamble from Barca, by the way, because in that period of time, they couldn't spend that much money because of the restrictions and they didn't even have that much money.

They had to pull financial levers just to make the deal happen. His first couple of years at the club were pretty complicated. Raphinha arrived expecting to become an important player on the right wing. The problem was Ousmane Dembélé. Xavi loved Dembélé and whenever the Frenchman was healthy, he was usually the preferred option on the right. >> Do those two play together then, Raphinha and Dembélé? How does that work? >> That's a good question.

It's a really good question. If you're going to indeed invest money, then I just don't see why you're investing money in similar players. >> So, Raphinha constantly felt like he was fighting for his place. And when he started, he became very familiar with one number in particular and that was 60 because around the 60th minute, like clockwork, Raphinha would be subbed out, no matter how well or bad he was playing. He absolutely hated it.

There were multiple games where he just crashed out, kicking things around the bench and making it very obvious that he wanted to stay on the pitch. Still though, his first season was pretty productive. Barcelona won La Liga and the Spanish Super Cup while Raphinha finished the campaign with 10 goals and 12 assists across all competition. When Dembélé got injured, Raphinha really stepped up and produced some important performances during the title race.

But he still had plenty of critics. His dribbling could look awkward, his decision-making frustrated people, and he did not always have the smooth technical style that Barça supporters expected from their wingers, especially if that winger is Brazilian. Then, Dembélé the rat left for PSG in 2023. You would think that would finally open up the right wing position for Raphinha. But unfortunately for him, some 16-year-old kid named Lamine Yamal showed up out of nowhere.

I don't know if you guys have heard of him. Within months, it became pretty obvious that Lamine Yamal was going to own that side of the pitch. So, Xavi started moving Raphinha around. He played him from the left more often, and sometimes moved him into more central areas where his running could become incredibly useful. So, while Flick absolutely deserves credit for making Raphinha the player he is today, Xavi was the first one to experiment with him on the left-hand side.

Towards the end of the 2023-2024 season, Raphinha actually started playing some of the best football of his career at the time for Barça. The biggest example came in the Champions League against PSG. Barcelona traveled to Paris for the first leg of the quarterfinals, and Raphinha scored twice in a 3-2 win. This was the biggest stage he had played on for Barcelona, and he had been their best player. He continued playing well during the final months of the season.

But somehow that summer, a large section of the fan base wanted him gone. Spain had just won the 2024 Euros, and Nico Williams had been incredible alongside Lamine Yamal. Suddenly, every Barcelona supporter had the same transfer obsession. Everybody wanted Nico Williams. Fans were photoshopping him onto Barcelona shirts. They were openly talking about selling Raphinha to fund the deal, and Barcelona needed the money.

Saudi clubs were interested in Raphinha, Premier League teams were monitoring him, and after 2 years of constantly fighting for his place, leaving started to look like a very realistic possibility. >> But then Hansi Flick arrived. Before Raphinha made any decision about his future, Flick wanted him back in training. He had watched him play and had a plan for him. And it was a phone conversation between Flick and Raphinha that would completely change the Brazilian's career.

Flick quickly realized that Raphinha's qualities were wasted if he was just standing out there on the touchline getting the ball and having to dribble against players 1v1. Raphinha's best quality had always been his movement. So Flick gave him freedom. Instead of keeping Raphinha glued to the left touchline, he allowed him to drift inside, play closer to Robert Lewandowski, and constantly attack the space behind the defenders.

And that fit perfectly with Flick's football. Barca wanted to play vertically. They wanted to be direct. Whenever Pedri or Lamine Yamal got on the ball, Raphinha turned on the jets. You could see his connection with Yamal all the time. Yamal receives the ball on the right and starts attracting defenders towards him. Meanwhile, Raphinha is in the space behind the defense from the opposite side. One pass later and Raphinha's through on goal.

How many goals have we seen come from that exact situation between the two of these guys? And because Barcelona's defensive line was so aggressive, Raphinha's pressing became incredibly important as well. He would sprint at defenders like they owed him money, chase lost balls, and immediately made another run once Barcelona recovered possession. His stamina was better than your local hooker. He also wore his shorts higher than your local hooker.

In the 2024-2025 season, he had already made hundreds of runs in behind, more than Kylian Mbappé and around twice as many as anyone else in La Liga. Against Valladolid, Raphinha scored a hat-trick as Barca destroyed them 7-0. Then came Bayern Munich, a team that had spent years terrorizing Barcelona in Europe. And Raphinha destroyed them, too. >> You have to give Raphinha a lot, a lot, a lot of credit because right now he is, I would say, alongside Lewandowski scoring goals, was main main guy at [music] Barcelona.

Well done, Raphinha. >> Three days later, Barcelona traveled to the Bernabeu and Raphinha was at it again. He scored and assisted as Barca destroyed Real Madrid 4-0. He finished the 2024-2025 season with 34 goals and 22 assists in 57 games. He was also the joint top goalscorer in the Champions League and named the La Liga player of the season. >> I would actually classify him more as the Raphinha mold, right? Where he can take you one-v-one and and finish these kind of finishes that we just saw, where he can score with his head and and and his timing is amazing and he knows where the ball's going to fall to. >> Those numbers were ridiculous, especially when you remember that a few years earlier, he was being criticized for his inconsistent output.

Some of his biggest performances came when Barca needed him the most. Against Benfica in the Champions League, Raphinha once again destroyed his former Portuguese opponent. >> Raphinha slots away the goal, so some game. Unbelievable. >> Unbelievable, isn't it? >> He thought he had scored the winner versus Inter, but then they came back. Yeah, the less said about this game the better. Raphinha also continued terrorizing Real Madrid.

In the Spanish Super Cup final, Barca beat Madrid 5-2 and Raphinha scored twice while adding an assist. In the final El Clasico of the season, he scored a brace, which helped Barca not just win the match, but clinch the 2025 La Liga title. But what made Raphinha so important went beyond the numbers. He had become a real leader of this team. When Yamal was hit with a rough challenge, Raphinha was one of the first players getting involved.

When Barca scored, he was pulling the substitutes off the bench to celebrate with everyone. He had become a leader everyone respected. He was the real captain, not Ter Stegen or Araujo the bozo. The season after that, he still looked good, but unfortunately hamstring injuries ruined his progress. He missed large chunks of the season and yet still produced 21 goals and eight assists in all competition. He had become so good that 30 goal contributions was considered a down season for him.

He got two goals and three assists versus Newcastle, but then he was injured for the next stage of the tournament against Atletico. His only contribution in that tie was telling Atletico fans they were going home the next round. He ended up being right. He had also scored a hat-trick against Sevilla before being out with another hamstring injury weeks later. So, heading into the 2026-2027 season, the main objective was to keep Raphinha healthy. >> We talked a lot about Raphinha when he was injured last season and about how Barcelona aren't the same team without him.

[music] That demonstrates it immensely today, didn't it? >> Yeah, exactly. It's a It's a massive difference between a team with him and >> But Flick also had another plan for him. You see, with Lewandowski gone and Ferran Torres leaving to go sit on a different bench, who was going to lead the line? There were plenty of conversations about Barca needing to go into the market and sign a proper striker. Instead, Flick looked at the player he had already transformed and decided to move Raphinha through the middle. >> Who's going to fill that number nine role, Ale?

What have you seen from Raphinha so far scoring five goals in three games? >> Well, the answer is very simple. Raphinha is going to fill that role. >> What a wonderful decision it turned out to be. >> You know, Raphinha up front filling that number nine role because of all the Julian Alvarez nonsense, Ferran Torres is going to PSG, Lewandowski's in Major League Soccer now, and Raphinha's just gone in there and he's continued his form through the middle. >> Goals are not going to be a problem for Barcelona. >> First couple of seasons under Hansi Flick, Barca scored in average almost 100 goals per season in [music] all comps.

Maybe this makes them even more dangerous than what they were. >> The guy started off the season with six goals and one assist in four matches in his new position. >> But right now, Pichichi race being [music] the leader, you can't ask Raphinha to do anything more. Anything you thought he would have been able to achieve, [music] he surpassed that already in these three games. >> Raphinha's got the same He's got as good a movement as Ferran Torres.

He's as quick as Ferran Torres, but his finishing is better. He's a lot more clinical. >> Every game he had scored at least one goal. While he did the Spider-Man celebration to mock Alvarez for being stuck in Atletico Madrid's jail. I'm just kidding, that celebration was for his son. Flick understood that putting Raphinha closer to goal would make his good qualities even more dangerous because all of that movement we talked about before becomes a nightmare when it starts from the middle. >> Raphinha's numbers will tell you even from that wide position, that graphic that we saw would tell you that his consistency in the final third is way better.

And if they keep putting him in those positions, you know, the Fermin Lopez, Pedri, Dani Olmo, Lamine, all these Lamine Yamal and all these players that can supply somebody with that kind of movement and finishing, then he's going to have himself a heck of a season. >> Raphinha rarely stays still between the center-backs. He can drop deeper, move into the channels, and then suddenly explode into the space left behind.

And when Yamal gets the ball on the right, you already know what's coming. Raphinha takes off. >> I mean, him [music] in particular, his movement is frightening. I know why people can't get close to him cuz he just appears with a little burst of pace. >> That connection was already devastating when he played from the left. It's even more dangerous with Raphinha starting centrally. >> The way he takes this chance, what center forward, what out and out [music] striker, what number nine in the world could do this better than what he just did here?

The movement without the ball to make himself available, and then in a tight space, >> [music] >> getting around the defender, and once he is face-to-face with a goalkeeper, finding the calmness to then find the back of the net. >> He also gives Flick exactly what he needs defensively from a striker. He presses like a maniac. He hunts center-backs down. He closes down the goalkeeper and helps Barcelona win the ball ridiculously high up the pitch. >> You don't see number nines doing this, but when he drops off in the manner in which he did there, it's non-traditional play.

Why is that difficult to defend as a center-back? Because as a center-back, you're used to that movement, near post, far post, or somewhere in between. When he drops off, you kind of like, "Okay, I guess we've done our work because now he's not in our space. He would be in the trailing central midfielder." But the recognition then to do the overlapping run that is more of a wide player sort of move, guess what? Now the center back can't get there in time and the recovering central midfielder can't get there in time either.

While he is playing the position in a non-traditional way, what is very traditional is that he's finding the final touch. He's finding [music] the finish. >> Raphinha has not shown you or given you any indication that he's not comfortable as playing in that number nine position. >> More importantly, Raphinha finally has something at Barcelona that he had spent years searching for and that's trust. His manager trusts him.

Like Flick loves Raphinha. I would say more than any other player on the team. >> Raphinha is >> [music] >> the great example of how this team works. The fun He's always a player that leads by example, gives his all in his training [music] sessions and also today in a game of high intensity. He's an important player for us. >> Raphinha's teammates also trust him and the supporters love him. To see just how good the team around him has been, you have to watch this video right here.