Pelé. Ronaldo. Ronaldinho. Neymar. For any soccer fan, these names represent one of the great legacies of the sport, a force that emerges every four years at the World Cup to remind every other country of the athleticism, beauty and skill that it brings to the game. Of course, we’re talking about Brazil, a nation as inseparable from soccer as any other. 

But with the World Cup coming up again this summer, it’s time to add a new name to the list: Raphinha. Raphinha is the latest in the long line of Brazilian stars to try and lead their country to international glory. And just like Ronaldinho, he also represents one of the other major institutions in the sport: FC Barcelona, the reigning champions of Spain’s La Liga. While Raphinha might be carrying the mantle of these legends, he is still his own player. The goal he scored in May 2025, during the UEFA Champions League against Inter Milan — a back-heel volley following an attack by Fermín López — is just one of many that fill the reels of what fans call some of the best goals in modern European play. Sure, he can score and assist with the best of the Brazilian attackers, but he’s also built a reputation as a tireless and committed all-around player with an insane work-rate who presses hard and defends in addition to attacking.

“I cannot control how tall or muscular I am, but I can control how much pressure, how much focus, how much resilience I put on my work,” Raphinha said. “These things kept me in the game and made me the player I am today.” Fittingly, Raphinha’s unique skillset has an origin story to match. He grew up in Restinga, a favela in Porto Alegre, sharing a bedroom with his parents and younger brother and avoiding the area’s drug-filled underworld. Raphinha developed his game in the várzeas, an underground system of informal matches and tournaments organized by various communities. 

This kind of soccer was miles away from FC Barcelona, the Brazilian national team or even the pro clubs in the country. Raphinha has described how his team would get death threats before the game from the other team’s supporters; gunshots would go off in the crowd during play, which took place on sweltering clay fields without nets between the goal posts. 

“Definitely those past experiences help me today. They are part of me and the way I play. I understand how difficult it is to arrive at my current level and I know all the efforts I’ve been through down the road to be here today,” Raphinha said. “Being rejected by clubs because you are not that tall or because you are too skinny made me understand I need to find a way to make it through. And the way was fighting, pressing, running, so these things would compensate for all the topics I was being rejected for.”

After being rejected by academy after academy, Raphinha finally started training with Brazilian club Avaí’s youth team. But injuries derailed his momentum, and when he got turned away from the team, he considered quitting the sport and becoming a barber. Fortunately for both him and the sport as a whole, his mom talked him out of it, and he eventually made his professional debut in Portugal in 2016. That led to Rennes in France and then Leeds United in England before Barcelona in 2022. When new manager Hansi Flick took over before the 2024 – ’25 season, he worked to unlock Raphinha’s potential by leaning into his athleticism and giving him more tactical freedom to play all over the field. 

“As I always say, playing for Barcelona is such an honor and I feel proud and grateful for the opportunity to be here,” Raphinha said. “You mention Ronaldinho, but we had also Romário, Rivaldo, Ronaldo and Neymar among others, so for me, being here means I’m doing something right. I hope people will remember me the way they think of the names I mentioned, but I know that to achieve this, every day I need to go there and give my best.”