Raphinha, Barcelona’s 28-year-old Brazilian winger, is having a dream season for the Catalan club.
He is into his third season at the club but is fulfilling his enormous potential for them this season. He has emerged as Barca’s most important player of late.
Goals Galore
Raphinha has scored 23 goals in 31 matches this season so far, including a couple of hat-tricks.
His hat-trick against Bayern Munich in Barcelona’s wonderful 4-1 win was his standout performance.
With the emergence of Lamine Yamal as Barcelona’s right-winger, Raphinha has had to play on the left flank this season despite preferring to play on the right.
Still, that has not stopped the Brazilian from doing wonders primarily with his left foot.
Barca have found scoring goals very easy this season and have actually scored a whopping 85 goals in a combined total of 28 matches in La Liga and UEFA Champions League.
Robert Lewandowski has contributed 29 of them and Yamal has chipped in with nine, but Raphinha is the only player to be among the top players both in terms of goals scored and assists made.
The Brazilian has six assists in 21 La Liga matches to his credit already this season.
Raphinha’s speed and ability to finish well have stood out and he continues to be one of the best attacking players in Europe at the moment.
Barring Mohamed Salah of Liverpool, no other player enjoys the same kind of goal contributions as Raphinha this season.
The Brazilian is a bit of a late bloomer.
He did not have the privilege of playing in a truly top club until he joined Barcelona in 2022.
After a couple of ordinary seasons with the Catalan giants, Raphinha is now experiencing his breakthrough season.
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Barcelona Will Still Find Winning the La Liga Title Difficult
Despite the brilliance of Raphinha, the Catalans should find it really difficult to win the La Liga title this year.
They trail arch-rivals Real Madrid by seven points, which should prove to be a considerable lead at this stage of the season.
With Atletico Madrid in second place above Barcelona, the Blaugrana will have to climb a couple of places in order to win the league title.
That should be really difficult, with the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham also being in good form for Real Madrid.
Barcelona are also in second place in the new Champions League format in the group stage.
Only Liverpool have looked better than them in the top European competition this season. However, it will be a different ball game in the next round.
Raphinha should continue to play the way he has been for Barcelona to have a realistic chance of winning the coveted double of La Liga and Champions League.
As mentioned already, it will not be an easy task by any means.
However, Raphinha deserves to win some silverware this season because of the scintillating form he has displayed so far.
Credit: IMAGO / Sergio Ros
Recording Date: 21.12.2024