Raphinha's recipe for the Champions League

Special Envoy to Newcastle"All professional players should have a bit of amateurism. I'm referring to the spirit a player develops when they play for nothing, without expecting any reward beyond victory. Raphinha is a clear example; he hasn't lost anything of what you achieve when you play for fun," said Marcelo Bielsa five years ago. In a working-class city that no tourist would ever set foot in if it weren't for football, Raphinha gave it his all by pursuing his dream: to succeed in football. Today he returns to a city similar to Leeds and Newcastle. Cities known for their football teams, or if lucky, for a musical group.

Cities where football is everything. As it is in the life of Raphinha, the captain who never stops working. "When I was a teenager, there were days I went hungry. I even went so far as to ask for money to buy food," the Porto Alegre-born player has sometimes explained. For many years, it seemed like he wouldn't make it to the national team. He arrived. It seemed like he wouldn't play in the Champions League. He did, and successfully, because he was the top scorer last season, with 13 goals. Now he wants to win it. "It's a personal challenge, the Champions League. I plan to give everything to win it," he said this summer in an interview in Brazil with the magazine Tackle"It hurt us to lose in the semi-finals, but we know we're on the right path," he added. The wound of extra time at San Siro remains open and spurs on an entire generation of players. Both the club and the players dream of that trophy as much as the fans.

The debut comes to St. James' Park, where two decades ago Barça suffered at the hands of players like Faustino Asprilla. A traditional English stadium, like the ones Raphinha knew when he signed for Leeds. That signing changed his life. "We already had him signed. It was clear he was a good player, and I had personally gone to see him live in a Lille game against Celtic. But due to transfer market circumstances, the deal couldn't be completed until the last day of the transfer window. There was no doubt, and we had no doubt that we would sign him," recalls Gaby Ruiz. "The first thing he asked us was what the training loads would be like. We thought maybe he wanted to get away from it all, but it was quite the opposite. He wanted to work harder than the others. We discovered an athlete obsessed with taking care of himself, training, and competing. And an excellent person," he adds. At Leeds, Raphinha exploded under the most meticulous and obsessive manager in modern football, Bielsa. He had already played well in Portugal and at Lille, but it was at the English club that half of Europe took notice of that electric and courageous player. Although he also had a tough time the year Bielsa was sacked—his replacement, Jesse March, even played him at full-back—Raphinha has fond memories of England.

Scoring at Newcastle

Now he returns as the captain of a Barça that debuts without the injured Lamine Yamal. Against Valencia, the team already showed that it can score goals and please. Raphinha has suffered greatly to get to this point, in the Champions League, on the shortlist for the Ballon d'Or. "I've thought about quitting many times. Some criticism made me doubt myself, my ability, whether I really deserved to be where I was," he told Tackle a few months ago–. People sometimes don't understand how much a player must give, both defensively and offensively. Today's football is very intense, and the striker won't always arrive with the strength to finish," he added. He knows he has to work very hard, as he did at Leeds, when the effort meant receiving two dream calls: one from Barça and one from the Brazilian national team, which called him up for the first time when he played at Elland Road. It's a fact of life in Italy, because he has ancestors from this country, and playing for his national team. A stage where he has already scored with Manchester United, although it remains to be seen whether he gets playing time. Ahead of him is Raphinha, who also scored at Newcastle Stadium, in a 2-1 win against Leeds. What matters most is the work of my family, my teammates, and my coaches. Nobody has ever given me anything. I've always achieved things with hard work and dedication," he maintains. To dream of winning the Champions League, you have to put your back into it. And Raphinha knows it. If he celebrated a stay at Leeds by crossing the pitch on his knees in gratitude, now he wants to cross the pitch at Budapest Stadium on his knees to celebrate the title at Newcastle.