The reconversion of Raphinha

BarcelonaHe had not trained as a centre-forward, but before the friendly against Basel, on August 16th, Hansi Flick told Raphinha that he would play for a while as a striker. Barça had not yet completely thrown in the towel on signing Julián Álvarez, Gabriel Jesus was, at that time, only a remote opportunity and Hamza Abdelkarim was the sensation of the pre-season. Before the friendly against the Swiss, however, the German conveyed to Raphinha that he would play "first as a nine and then as a winger". This is how the footballer explained it in a recent interview on RAC1.

Before the league debut, on August 23rd in Elche, the Brazilian had indeed already accumulated a few training sessions as a centre-forward, while Anthony Gordon was in charge of filling the void he himself left on the left. "The coach asked me if I was okay with it, that if I wasn't comfortable, he would swap me with Gordon and I would go back to playing on the left. I told him let's try it and it went well": Barça thrashed Elche 0-5 with two goals and an assist from the former Leeds player. Raphinha has not moved from the position of nine and is smashing records: fourteen goals in eight games, twelve in the League and two more against Feyenoord, in the Champions League.

"I am not surprised by my performance, but I am surprised to be playing again. Perhaps in some specific match I had played as a center forward throughout my career, but never so consistently. I didn't imagine I would be so comfortable," the Brazilian assesses, also joking, in the interview. "Playing with your back to the center-backs is complicated. You take a few hits. I didn't think I would adapt so well to the position and, what I try most is not to play with my back to the goal," he explains. "I had to adapt. If I wanted to play in my original position, as a right winger, I wouldn't play," he jokes. The right wing of the attack has a master and lord: Lamine Yamal. "It seems I am a better forward than a winger and I didn't know it".

His performance has turned Raphinha into the most lethal striker in all of Europe. The Brazil national team coach, Carlo Ancelotti, does not currently take advantage of it to make him play as a center forward, but he used him for 90 minutes in the Brazilians' draw in Australia (1-1), in the first of the matches they have to play these days. With Barça, he has produced 15 goals in Barcelona's first seven matches in La Liga (twelve goals, three assists), a record that in the 21st century only Karim Benzema equals. The French forward, who at 38 is exhausting his career in the Saudi Al Hilal, achieved it in the first seven matches of the 2021-22 season, according to Opta data provided to ARA. If we look only at the goals, in the first seven matchdays of La Liga, the Brazilian has scored twelve, a figure that only Cristiano Ronaldo has surpassed in the 21st century, with thirteen goals in seven matches in the 2014-15 season with Real Madrid. Messi, in his best start (2017-18), scored eleven in seven matchdays.

In his best complete season (2024-25), his first under Flick's orders, Raphinha scored 34 goals in 57 matches across all competitions, an average of 0.60 goals per game. Now he is scoring almost triple that per duel. The Brazilian finds the net every 45 minutes, with an average of 1.71 goals per match. Furthermore, Raphinha has scored two hat tricks in a row (against Racing de Santander and Sevilla). In the 21st century, Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi have also achieved this, on three occasions each; Luis Suárez (Barça) on two occasions, and Gonzalo Higuaín (Madrid).

The Raphinha-Lamine Yamal partnership

Raphinha has not only managed to readapt to cede the right flank to Lamine Yamal, but both form one of the best partnerships in current European football. Against Sevilla, in Barça's last match before the international break, Lamine Yamal reached 51 assists as a Blaugrana in all competitions. According to Opta data, Raphinha is the teammate to whom he has provided the most goal-scoring passes: eleven. Both are crucial in Hansi Flick's exuberant Barça.

In fact, it is the fourth occasion on which Barcelona has started a La Liga season with seven victories in its first seven matches, after doing so in the 2013-14, 2017-18, and 2024-25 campaigns. The German coach is the first manager to achieve this with the Blaugranes on two occasions (2024-25 and 2026-27). Only one team in the entire history of La Liga had scored more goals than the current Barça (31) after its first seven matches in the competition: Sevilla, in the 1940-41 campaign (40 goals).

There could have been even more goals under the German's command. Since Flick's arrival, Barça has hit the woodwork 64 times in La Liga, sixteen times more than any other team in the five major European leagues, followed by Bayern Munich in the same period of time (48 shots against the woodwork). Raphinha and Lamine Yamal are the two players who have hit the woodwork the most: twelve times each during this period. Raphinha, as he has explained, had even seen himself outside of Barça before Flick's arrival, but the German "changed his life" and returned his self-confidence to him.