Raphinha, the man who almost left, leads Barcelona to verge of dream title | Sid Lowe

Barcelona couldn’t get the player they wanted so they just had to settle for the best. At the end of another wild, joyous and exhausting afternoon, another clásico won their way, the captain called them all into the middle of Montjuïc. And where Raphael Dias Belloli calls, his teammates follow, all the way to the title. Which was why, an arm raised, a wrist wrapped in a blue bandage lifted above the crowd like a symbol of strength, the Brazilian who has been better than anyone anywhere, now gathered them round and led them into a lap of honour together. It was time to give thanks; time to get thanks, too.

They had earned it. Real Madrid, who were supposed to be invincible, had been beaten again. Sunday was the fourth time time this season, a record unmatched in 125 years: four victories in as many cities, Barcelona scoring four goals to go with the three, five and four in the previous clásicos, a circle closed. The first was the statement that started it all, a declaration of intent at the Bernabéu; the second won the Super Cup in Saudi Arabia; the third brought the Copa del Rey back from Seville; now they had virtually secured the league, a 4-3 win taking them seven points clear with nine left, double almost done.

Off they went, clapping and waving and bouncing about because whoever didn’t was a Madridista, the words say. In the directors’ box, Travis Scott was stargazing. Below him, where a fan had offered Vinícius Júnior a beach ball to play with, they were flying flags and singing. Almost all the 50,319 people in the Olympic Stadium were in no hurry to head home, happy to take it all in, and the hundred or so behind the glass cage high in the away end were given no choice but to stay for a while and wonder what might have been. No one had expected to be here when it all began in August, not like this.

Some didn’t imagine being here at all. Back then, the goalkeeper who had just won the double wasn’t even a goalkeeper any more. Wojciech Szczesny was beginning retirement in Marbella, sitting on the beach with a cigarette. When they called, he was playing golf with his son; now, they were playing again, only this was football on the Montjuïc pitch, the families who had been through it too invited to join in. Raphinha didn’t think he would be here either, let alone leading them to the league. And yet here he was, scorer of two more on the day they had done it, holding another player-of-the-match award – even if he insisted Barça still needed a win and he would have given it to someone else.

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Actually, and yet? Maybe that should read because? Maybe it is because Raphinha thought he might not be here at all, because some people really didn’t want him to be and others really, really did, that he did so much to ensure that they were. “Not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine living these moments,” he said, but maybe it is the possibility of leaving that turned him into such a leader. In part, perhaps, it was the combination of rejection and affection that fuelled him; maybe that is what made him Spain’s best player this season.

Now best is another word you might want to put a question mark next to. No one has played like Pedri, and probably no one can play like Pedri. Robert Lewandowski is their top scorer, a goal a game at 36. Lamine Yamal is ludicrous, you know that. You may want to talk about Iñigo Martínez and Jules Koundé, and you would be right to. And Szczesny is the story of this or any season. Besides, this is a collective success, at the hand of Hansi Flick. Yet Flick says Raphinha is “a clear example of how this team works”, racing into every battle, relentlessly taking them all with him, and there is no one who has done what he has: a double winner with 34 goals and 25 assists, when it’s not even about the stats. “I have never had a player like him,” the coach says.

Raphinha had never been a player like this, either. Flick believed in him when others had not, when even he wasn’t entirely sure any more. The day Flick was announced as coach, he called the Brazilian and told him he was counting on him. Barcelona were very publicly pursuing Nico Williams, trying to recreate the partnership and friendship with Lamine Yamal that had been so good for Spain, and doing so meant Raphinha not only vacating his place on the wing but also accepting a transfer that would generate the money they needed to force Athletic to sell.

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A picture soon circulated of Williams in a Barcelona shirt with a No 11 on the back, Raphinha’s No 11. And if that was only a photoshop, posted by an influencer, if it shouldn’t have mattered, it did – Raphinha admitted it hurt and called it a “lack of respect.” He knew that dream was not just coming from outside, some in the boardroom looking at him and seeing dollar signs. He knew too that his previous coach didn’t have faith in him either, or at least that is how it felt. It wasn’t just his imagination, either. In 60 games under Xavi, Raphinha played 90 minutes only seven times: twice in the first season, five times in the second.

“The call from Flick was very important in my decision to stay,” Raphinha said, an invitation to resist the pressure, to not allow anyone to push him towards the door. There was something striking about the fact that his retelling of that story included the observation that Flick had put his mind at rest “without even knowing me or seeing me in person”. And then when he did, the promise was fulfilled. This season, he has played the full 90 in 22 of his 29 league starts and has been on the pitch every minute of the last eight Champions League games, playing 11 in full across the competition.

That’s a product of performance of course but it can be self-creating and self-perpetuating. “Now, I have no fear, I’m not under pressure, needing to do something well [to stay on],” he admitted, and there was also a tactical variation: the change of wing, Lamine Yamal playing right, Raphinha playing left with Alex Balde flying up behind him, suited him more than he could have imagined. A more direct approach, the space into which to run, worked too.

The results have been extraordinary, a relentlessness to him all over the pitch. He scored 13 goals and provided nine assists in the Champions League, directly involved in more goals than anyone else, ever. In the league, only Alex Baena has created more chances and only Lamine has more assists. There have been 18 goals and 11 assists in La Liga, including the two assists and a goal at 3-1 down to beat Celta 4-3 and the goal that levelled against Valladolid, allowing them to come into the clásico knowing that a win would end it. He it was who scored the late goal that should have taken them into a European Cup final four days earlier. And then this Sunday, he scored the third and fourth, completing the comeback against Madrid that virtually clinched the title.

“Flick changed my career; I owe him the best season of my life,” Raphinha said. Yet it is not just the numbers and not just the manager. In the summer, Barcelona’s players voted on the new club captains. “I never imagined they would choose me,” he admitted, but they saw something special in him and the unexpectedness of that vote, the way it came as a very tangible expression of trust, served to increase his commitment, to deepen the collective responsibility he already felt. There was warmth, even gratitude. There were also now people to prove wrong and people – more important people – to prove right.

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“After reading that you’re going, that the club doesn’t have faith in you, after hearing the press speak ill of you, I never imagined being one of the captains,” he said. “A captain has to fight for the club, the badge, his teammates. I’ve always tried to make sure everyone felt part of the group. It’s not just about wearing the armband. I started this season with a different mentality. It’s a tactical and mental issue. The faith the coach and the players have in me is very important.”

The faith he has in them too, the willingness to lead, do anything for them: to embody this team, its identity and its people. When Raphinha admitted that he felt for Dani Olmo when his registration was on hold because of the club’s financial difficulties, that he could understand players thinking twice about coming, it might have seemed like the kind of thing a captain shouldn’t say but it was in fact exactly the kind of thing a captain should say, not just some naive, anodyne public platitude. Instead, there was empathy, awareness, support. And redemption: for all the doubts he had stayed, and now look. He knows football can be shit inside; he also knows that, despite that, it can still be brilliant out there and appreciate it all the more for the dark times. That in the end, there’s nothing better than being here for something like this, calling his teammates over to celebrate something extraordinary earned together.

Source: theguardian.com