Raphinha, Barcelona’s injury-time hero, finding his groove under Hansi Flick

Life is different now for Raphinha. After the stoppage-time winner against Benfica to script a famous he, he sprinted towards a section of Barcelona fans and blew kisses their way. They threw kisses back too, and heaved wildly. He has never felt so loved in the colours of this famous shirt, and shortly declared, in the backdrop of the still euphoric fans, that “I will kill and die for this club.”This has not always been the 28-year-old’s sentiment for the club. Or those of the club’s fans. At the start of the season, he saw fans wearing his shirt number with the name of Atletico Bilbao winger Neco Williams, whose pursuit failed due to Barcelona’s cash-crunch. Raphinha was put on the clearance l, but few clubs could match the hefty price tag of 70 million Euros Barcelona had slapped on him. Or few thought he was worth that sum.
There were times he longed to play for a smaller club, where he would be loved and where he would get ample playing time. “There was a lot of self-doubt. I have a nasty habit of criticising myself heavily, so to speak, so that pressure made me think about leaving. Not once, but several times,” Raphinha said.
The 28-year-old, though, was no quitter. If he were inclined to give up at the slightest setback, he would not have reached the professional circuit. His childhood was difficult. Son of an Italian immigrant, a street musician, and a Brazilian mother, he grew up in crime-inflicted, impoverished Restinga, a neighbourhood in Porto Alegre. He saw his friend getting shot on the streets. “I lost a lot of friends in the world of crime, in the drug trade…. Friends who played 10 times better than me and who could have been in a great football club in the world,” he wrote in UOL Esporte.
Tough childhood
A strong bond with the family guaranteed that he didn’t stray into the dark world of drugs. “It was because of my family that I never dropped out of school and ignored the opportunities I had to take the wrong path,” Raphinha admitted in his column. His parents did everything they could to nurture his passion, but to not overburden them, he would ask strangers in the streets to buy him a snack after training.
“It would be unfair to say that I have gone hungry in my life because my parents never lacked food at home. Still, after training, I would stand on the street and ask people to buy me something to eat or a snack. Some people would help me, others would call me a bum straight out,” he recounted.
Every night he dreamt the great Brazilian football dream. A scout would pounce at his door and ferry him to the gates of a European giant. None came knocking, and every week he simply packed his kit to the dant corners of the country to play in the várzea (independent matches and tournaments organised the local community). He failed several trials until Avai FC, a team in Brazil’s second division, signed him a few months before he turned 18, an age when most red hot talents from his country had already begun earning in millions. “Somehow, when I think that nothing is going my way, something positive turns up. I end up meeting people who change my life,” he would say.
First came former Portuguese midfielder Deco, who spotted him at a junior club tournament in Sao Paulo and took him to Portugal club Vitória de Guimarães. Next was Bruno Fernandes, his teammate at Sporting CP, who convinced him that he would be a successful professional at any club. Marcelo Bielsa arrived next, when he moved to Leeds United. The acclaimed coach polished his rough edges, moulded him into a modern winger, blending his pace with intelligence, energy with vision, and made him sparkle in the tough grind of the English Premier League. The most influential man, though, would be Hansi Flick, his manager at Barcelona.
Finding his calling
When Flick arrived, the gloriously-gifted Lamine Yamal had already nailed his spot on the right wing, and would potentially inhabit the space for years. But the German saw ample gifts in him to not banish him altogether. He simply shifted him to the opposite flank, a role he has not only adapted to but also grown into.
Flick improvised his function. Rather than being deputed to hug the touchline, he offered him the freedom to drift into more central channels and interchange the roles with the No.10, or even the centre forward. Raphinha has blinding pace; Flick gave his runs a sense of direction and purpose. No one in La Liga, according to La Liga Beyond Stats, has better control when moving faster than 20kph.
In a matter of games, he became a living dread for full-backs. The Brazilian is incredibly quick without the ball; he is infuriatingly quick with it too. He marries pace with precision and control during his high-speed sprints, virtues that enable him to get behind centre-backs, and beat the off-side traps. “He is someone who never gives up, is never tired and is always on the front foot,” Flick would say.
The alacrity, often misconstrued as restlessness, resulted in his first goal against Benfica on Tuesday, a header (more of a rebound from a goal kick) from outside the box. The second was classic Raphinha, a rasping counter and a svelte finish. It was his 22nd goal in 30 games across all competitions (11 asss aside). In the middle of his most prolific season, he has started loving Barcelona and Barcelona cannot but love him back too.

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