One of the best unseen moments of this season’s Champions League happened in the immediate aftermath of Barcelona beating Bayern München 4-1 in October.
Hat trick-hero Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski were standing behind the North Goal end of the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, basking in the home fans’ wild acclaim for the biggest, most thrilling victory of Barcelona’s recent European seasons. As they waved back to the Culés and punched fists high in the air to acknowledge a shared moment of glory, Raphinha turned to his Polish team-mate and exclaimed, “Dammit… Look! We lost the possession stats!”
He was genuinely annoyed, despite the context making his irritation seem impossible to comprehend. Barça had been pushed around by Bayern in their previous five meetings, not just beaten every time but losing by an embarrassing aggregate scoreline of 19-2. This victory, therefore, was not simply cathartic – it was a massive boost to morale and momentum, eventually spurring them on to finish second in the new league phase. Add in a first-ever Champions League treble for the Brazilian and surely mere ball-possession statistics ought to have been redundant.
Not to Raphinha. When we meet for a long, friendly chat at Barcelona’s training ground, he’s initially surprised to discover I know this detail. My producer, Tim, had been filming right next to the two men behind the goalmouth when he overheard Raphinha’s startled and disappointed reaction to the numbers on the screen above their heads. Either way, Barça’s captain that night smiles sheepishly now, accepting that we stumbled upon an important facet of his character.
“Losing? I can’t even explain how much I hate it,” he says. “I don’t like losing on the pitch, I don’t like losing in my house. If I’m playing a card or a board game with my friends, I hate to lose. I get really angry. Obviously, defeat is natural in football – it happens. But I’m someone who has difficulty accepting that.
“I think me complaining to Robert that we’d lost the possession stats simply underlines how, often, the result doesn’t reflect how a match went. Against Bayern, it was very balanced. The result could have been 2-1 or 1-0. Even so, defeating them, one of the best clubs in the world, in my 100th match for Barcelona, was amazing. Only those who experienced that match really know what we felt. So special.”
And that special moment didn’t arrive by magic. The Porto Alegre-born 28-year-old is currently revelling in the most decisive, entertaining phase of his career by far. By the end of the league phase, he was, statistically, the Champions League’s most valuable player: eight goals and five assists. At the time of writing, he is also the author of 24 goals and 15 assists across all competitions this term (already an all-time personal best).
Two other facts count heavily in this performance appraisal. Firstly, his team-mates elected him to join Barcelona’s captaincy group last summer and, secondly, for neutrals who simply love the sport, watching Raphinha in action has become joyful. Whether he plays down the left, the right or in Barcelona’s fabled No10 position, he oozes gusto, inventiveness, creativity, and he has formed exceptional relationships with both the veteran Lewandowski and the teenage genius that is Lamine Yamal.
“You could say I’m living the best moment of my career because I have my best stats. But I began this season with a different kind of motivation thanks to the captaincy thing. Honestly, if you asked me last season if that was something I was expecting, I’d have said, ‘No!’
“That’s because of the moment I’d been experiencing: I was not confident, and I wasn’t consistent. So, it was far from my expectations – I didn’t see myself as one of Barcelona’s captains. This season, my confidence changed, my mindset changed, and the fact that I don’t accept losing might help me to display leadership on and off the pitch.
“I have always been a fighter. That’s one of my strengths. And the manager gives me a lot of confidence, on and off the pitch. The fact that everyone accepted me as a captain was really important to help me understand my role in the dressing room and on the pitch. Whenever someone needs something, I’m willing to help. Moreover, confidence is important for any professional, not just footballers. When you’re very confident, your way of working is different. Things happen naturally.”
Raphinha fits into a large category of South American players for whom early life proved brutally arduous, and likewise the start of their playing careers. Even the humblest dreams often seemed out of reach. Hence the fierce combative spirit etched deep into his character.
He and his family were often too poor for him to afford the bus ticket to training, or the entry fee which his junior side were required to produce in order to play in local tournaments. None of that makes him unique. But it did condition how tenacious and resourceful he became, especially given that he was often turned down because of his physique.
“Eventually, this all gave me more will to fight for what I wanted, but there were some tournaments I didn’t play in because I didn’t have the money to pay an entry fee. And I was very small, very thin, meaning I was rejected many times in the youth categories. They said I didn’t have the strength or the size to be able to compete.
“That simply gave me the hunger to fight and to prove that the size or strength of a person don’t attest to their ability to play football. I believe that intelligence and skills need to be taken into consideration. Leo Messi is small and, in my opinion, he is the best of all time. Neymar was slender when he was playing at Santos and he did what he did, then he came to Barcelona and he was still skinny but did everything he did here. So, I think people shouldn’t prioritise strength and size over a player’s skills and intelligence. Anyway, I struggled a lot with that when I was a kid, meaning I had to battle and fight for my dreams.”
Unfortunately, this sport we cherish doesn’t always show its friendly face, even to the most doughty or diligent. Far from it. So, when Raphinha first joined Barcelona from Leeds United in 2022, he found the experience so tough that it very nearly forced him to accept defeat – the concept he hates the most – and to throw his hands up in surrender.
Not long after that hat-trick against Bayern, Raphinha admitted to Catalan radio station RAC1 that, after training, he had often gone home to his wife either in tears or doubting whether he had any future at the club. He called football a sport which could “destroy you”, and admitted that on many mornings he awoke without the will to go and train. His upset wife, he explained, “didn’t really know how to help me”. Naturally, he was tempted to give up.
It’s Raphinha himself who deserves the vast majority of the credit for taking that situation, reversing it, and rising to become arguably Barcelona’s most important footballer this season. The way he tells it to us, however, he didn’t achieve all that on his own. Sports psychology played a huge role, for a start.
“When you change teams – be it as a player, coach or in another role – adapting is something you’ve just got to get through,” he says. “Adapting to new team-mates, your new coach and the way of playing in a team that’s new to you. That’s natural in football, and in the world in general. When you move locations in any profession, you’ve got to adapt to your new company.
“The difference in football is that people expect results really quickly. It may or may not happen. In general, people need to bed in, to keep calm and work hard because, with work, you can adapt a lot quicker. Fortunately, I’ve had a lot of help from my team-mates, the coaching staff, the coach, the board and the president. When I arrived, though, I wasn’t working with a psychologist. Later, due to the difficulties I went through, I ended up looking for a professional to get help, to understand what I was feeling. And that was very important.
“Getting help from a specialised psychology professional is always helpful. It’s important to understand ourselves, our feelings, what we’re dealing with, everything we can do to adapt faster. I think it’s important not only for our work but for all professionals. It can help all of us understand problems we had in the past which we end up blocking for some reason. A psychologist can help us understand and heal traumas from our childhood and bring coping ideas for problems in the present and future. It’s fundamental to understand ourselves. But it’s difficult.”
A contributory explanation for Raphinha’s determination to triumph at Barcelona reverberates back to his youth, when he was transfixed not only by the success of Ronaldinho but the way in which his fellow Brazilian was adored at the Camp Nou.
“To be honest, I really admired him as a person. In every game, he did something different. When I was young, we’d all be waiting for Barcelona to play to see what Ronaldinho would do in the game. He’d always surprise us with something special. That’s how it was, and he never disappointed us. He always did something magical. I guess it was much better for those in the stadium, but for us watching on TV it was spectacular. Back then, I didn’t imagine playing here. It was really distant for me.”
That distant dream inched a little closer when, thanks to his dad’s musical skills, he was brought along to one of Ronaldinho’s birthday celebrations. Raphinha, the little kid, couldn’t believe he was in the presence of the great man. And even now, as a high-profile professional, he’s still struck by the fact that he met his hero. It almost feels like an imagined memory – but for one thing.
“Well, I was really young, and I don’t remember an awful lot about it except I know I was there because I got a photo with him! Music and football in Brazil have always been associated with one another. I don’t know if this applies abroad, I reckon so, but football without music just doesn’t work. My parents were there, as was my younger brother, and many other children were also around that day. But I got that photo taken with Ronaldinho that day.”
When it’s time to wrap up the interview, I close by asking him one of those questions which so many players and coaches like to dodge. Most of them dedicate every single iota of their energy and determination towards winning big trophies, but if you ask them whether they can envisage it happening, many shy away from the idea – as if answering honestly might somehow jinx it all.
Not the case with Barça’s No11 when I press him on club football’s grandest prize.
“Yes, I see myself winning the Champions League,” he says, without hesitation. “I don’t know when, but I see myself winning it. I feel that I will, so I’ll fight to achieve it. I have a mental image of me being there, celebrating with the trophy. It’s a dream of mine, and dreams are meant to come true. So, I envisage myself lifting that trophy, celebrating with fans and team-mates, and adding another major title to this club’s history.”
Whether, on that imagined night, he’ll still be complaining if his team have lost the possession stats… well, I think you know the answer.
One of the best unseen moments of this season’s Champions League happened in the immediate aftermath of Barcelona beating Bayern München 4-1 in October.
Hat trick-hero Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski were standing behind the North Goal end of the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, basking in the home fans’ wild acclaim for the biggest, most thrilling victory of Barcelona’s recent European seasons. As they waved back to the Culés and punched fists high in the air to acknowledge a shared moment of glory, Raphinha turned to his Polish team-mate and exclaimed, “Dammit… Look! We lost the possession stats!”
He was genuinely annoyed, despite the context making his irritation seem impossible to comprehend. Barça had been pushed around by Bayern in their previous five meetings, not just beaten every time but losing by an embarrassing aggregate scoreline of 19-2. This victory, therefore, was not simply cathartic – it was a massive boost to morale and momentum, eventually spurring them on to finish second in the new league phase. Add in a first-ever Champions League treble for the Brazilian and surely mere ball-possession statistics ought to have been redundant.
Not to Raphinha. When we meet for a long, friendly chat at Barcelona’s training ground, he’s initially surprised to discover I know this detail. My producer, Tim, had been filming right next to the two men behind the goalmouth when he overheard Raphinha’s startled and disappointed reaction to the numbers on the screen above their heads. Either way, Barça’s captain that night smiles sheepishly now, accepting that we stumbled upon an important facet of his character.
“Losing? I can’t even explain how much I hate it,” he says. “I don’t like losing on the pitch, I don’t like losing in my house. If I’m playing a card or a board game with my friends, I hate to lose. I get really angry. Obviously, defeat is natural in football – it happens. But I’m someone who has difficulty accepting that.
“I think me complaining to Robert that we’d lost the possession stats simply underlines how, often, the result doesn’t reflect how a match went. Against Bayern, it was very balanced. The result could have been 2-1 or 1-0. Even so, defeating them, one of the best clubs in the world, in my 100th match for Barcelona, was amazing. Only those who experienced that match really know what we felt. So special.”
And that special moment didn’t arrive by magic. The Porto Alegre-born 28-year-old is currently revelling in the most decisive, entertaining phase of his career by far. By the end of the league phase, he was, statistically, the Champions League’s most valuable player: eight goals and five assists. At the time of writing, he is also the author of 24 goals and 15 assists across all competitions this term (already an all-time personal best).
Two other facts count heavily in this performance appraisal. Firstly, his team-mates elected him to join Barcelona’s captaincy group last summer and, secondly, for neutrals who simply love the sport, watching Raphinha in action has become joyful. Whether he plays down the left, the right or in Barcelona’s fabled No10 position, he oozes gusto, inventiveness, creativity, and he has formed exceptional relationships with both the veteran Lewandowski and the teenage genius that is Lamine Yamal.
“You could say I’m living the best moment of my career because I have my best stats. But I began this season with a different kind of motivation thanks to the captaincy thing. Honestly, if you asked me last season if that was something I was expecting, I’d have said, ‘No!’
“That’s because of the moment I’d been experiencing: I was not confident, and I wasn’t consistent. So, it was far from my expectations – I didn’t see myself as one of Barcelona’s captains. This season, my confidence changed, my mindset changed, and the fact that I don’t accept losing might help me to display leadership on and off the pitch.
“I have always been a fighter. That’s one of my strengths. And the manager gives me a lot of confidence, on and off the pitch. The fact that everyone accepted me as a captain was really important to help me understand my role in the dressing room and on the pitch. Whenever someone needs something, I’m willing to help. Moreover, confidence is important for any professional, not just footballers. When you’re very confident, your way of working is different. Things happen naturally.”
Raphinha fits into a large category of South American players for whom early life proved brutally arduous, and likewise the start of their playing careers. Even the humblest dreams often seemed out of reach. Hence the fierce combative spirit etched deep into his character.
He and his family were often too poor for him to afford the bus ticket to training, or the entry fee which his junior side were required to produce in order to play in local tournaments. None of that makes him unique. But it did condition how tenacious and resourceful he became, especially given that he was often turned down because of his physique.
“Eventually, this all gave me more will to fight for what I wanted, but there were some tournaments I didn’t play in because I didn’t have the money to pay an entry fee. And I was very small, very thin, meaning I was rejected many times in the youth categories. They said I didn’t have the strength or the size to be able to compete.
“That simply gave me the hunger to fight and to prove that the size or strength of a person don’t attest to their ability to play football. I believe that intelligence and skills need to be taken into consideration. Leo Messi is small and, in my opinion, he is the best of all time. Neymar was slender when he was playing at Santos and he did what he did, then he came to Barcelona and he was still skinny but did everything he did here. So, I think people shouldn’t prioritise strength and size over a player’s skills and intelligence. Anyway, I struggled a lot with that when I was a kid, meaning I had to battle and fight for my dreams.”
Unfortunately, this sport we cherish doesn’t always show its friendly face, even to the most doughty or diligent. Far from it. So, when Raphinha first joined Barcelona from Leeds United in 2022, he found the experience so tough that it very nearly forced him to accept defeat – the concept he hates the most – and to throw his hands up in surrender.
Not long after that hat-trick against Bayern, Raphinha admitted to Catalan radio station RAC1 that, after training, he had often gone home to his wife either in tears or doubting whether he had any future at the club. He called football a sport which could “destroy you”, and admitted that on many mornings he awoke without the will to go and train. His upset wife, he explained, “didn’t really know how to help me”. Naturally, he was tempted to give up.
It’s Raphinha himself who deserves the vast majority of the credit for taking that situation, reversing it, and rising to become arguably Barcelona’s most important footballer this season. The way he tells it to us, however, he didn’t achieve all that on his own. Sports psychology played a huge role, for a start.
“When you change teams – be it as a player, coach or in another role – adapting is something you’ve just got to get through,” he says. “Adapting to new team-mates, your new coach and the way of playing in a team that’s new to you. That’s natural in football, and in the world in general. When you move locations in any profession, you’ve got to adapt to your new company.
“The difference in football is that people expect results really quickly. It may or may not happen. In general, people need to bed in, to keep calm and work hard because, with work, you can adapt a lot quicker. Fortunately, I’ve had a lot of help from my team-mates, the coaching staff, the coach, the board and the president. When I arrived, though, I wasn’t working with a psychologist. Later, due to the difficulties I went through, I ended up looking for a professional to get help, to understand what I was feeling. And that was very important.
“Getting help from a specialised psychology professional is always helpful. It’s important to understand ourselves, our feelings, what we’re dealing with, everything we can do to adapt faster. I think it’s important not only for our work but for all professionals. It can help all of us understand problems we had in the past which we end up blocking for some reason. A psychologist can help us understand and heal traumas from our childhood and bring coping ideas for problems in the present and future. It’s fundamental to understand ourselves. But it’s difficult.”
A contributory explanation for Raphinha’s determination to triumph at Barcelona reverberates back to his youth, when he was transfixed not only by the success of Ronaldinho but the way in which his fellow Brazilian was adored at the Camp Nou.
“To be honest, I really admired him as a person. In every game, he did something different. When I was young, we’d all be waiting for Barcelona to play to see what Ronaldinho would do in the game. He’d always surprise us with something special. That’s how it was, and he never disappointed us. He always did something magical. I guess it was much better for those in the stadium, but for us watching on TV it was spectacular. Back then, I didn’t imagine playing here. It was really distant for me.”
That distant dream inched a little closer when, thanks to his dad’s musical skills, he was brought along to one of Ronaldinho’s birthday celebrations. Raphinha, the little kid, couldn’t believe he was in the presence of the great man. And even now, as a high-profile professional, he’s still struck by the fact that he met his hero. It almost feels like an imagined memory – but for one thing.
“Well, I was really young, and I don’t remember an awful lot about it except I know I was there because I got a photo with him! Music and football in Brazil have always been associated with one another. I don’t know if this applies abroad, I reckon so, but football without music just doesn’t work. My parents were there, as was my younger brother, and many other children were also around that day. But I got that photo taken with Ronaldinho that day.”
When it’s time to wrap up the interview, I close by asking him one of those questions which so many players and coaches like to dodge. Most of them dedicate every single iota of their energy and determination towards winning big trophies, but if you ask them whether they can envisage it happening, many shy away from the idea – as if answering honestly might somehow jinx it all.
Not the case with Barça’s No11 when I press him on club football’s grandest prize.
“Yes, I see myself winning the Champions League,” he says, without hesitation. “I don’t know when, but I see myself winning it. I feel that I will, so I’ll fight to achieve it. I have a mental image of me being there, celebrating with the trophy. It’s a dream of mine, and dreams are meant to come true. So, I envisage myself lifting that trophy, celebrating with fans and team-mates, and adding another major title to this club’s history.”
Whether, on that imagined night, he’ll still be complaining if his team have lost the possession stats… well, I think you know the answer.
One of the best unseen moments of this season’s Champions League happened in the immediate aftermath of Barcelona beating Bayern München 4-1 in October.
Hat trick-hero Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski were standing behind the North Goal end of the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, basking in the home fans’ wild acclaim for the biggest, most thrilling victory of Barcelona’s recent European seasons. As they waved back to the Culés and punched fists high in the air to acknowledge a shared moment of glory, Raphinha turned to his Polish team-mate and exclaimed, “Dammit… Look! We lost the possession stats!”
He was genuinely annoyed, despite the context making his irritation seem impossible to comprehend. Barça had been pushed around by Bayern in their previous five meetings, not just beaten every time but losing by an embarrassing aggregate scoreline of 19-2. This victory, therefore, was not simply cathartic – it was a massive boost to morale and momentum, eventually spurring them on to finish second in the new league phase. Add in a first-ever Champions League treble for the Brazilian and surely mere ball-possession statistics ought to have been redundant.
Not to Raphinha. When we meet for a long, friendly chat at Barcelona’s training ground, he’s initially surprised to discover I know this detail. My producer, Tim, had been filming right next to the two men behind the goalmouth when he overheard Raphinha’s startled and disappointed reaction to the numbers on the screen above their heads. Either way, Barça’s captain that night smiles sheepishly now, accepting that we stumbled upon an important facet of his character.
“Losing? I can’t even explain how much I hate it,” he says. “I don’t like losing on the pitch, I don’t like losing in my house. If I’m playing a card or a board game with my friends, I hate to lose. I get really angry. Obviously, defeat is natural in football – it happens. But I’m someone who has difficulty accepting that.
“I think me complaining to Robert that we’d lost the possession stats simply underlines how, often, the result doesn’t reflect how a match went. Against Bayern, it was very balanced. The result could have been 2-1 or 1-0. Even so, defeating them, one of the best clubs in the world, in my 100th match for Barcelona, was amazing. Only those who experienced that match really know what we felt. So special.”
And that special moment didn’t arrive by magic. The Porto Alegre-born 28-year-old is currently revelling in the most decisive, entertaining phase of his career by far. By the end of the league phase, he was, statistically, the Champions League’s most valuable player: eight goals and five assists. At the time of writing, he is also the author of 24 goals and 15 assists across all competitions this term (already an all-time personal best).
Two other facts count heavily in this performance appraisal. Firstly, his team-mates elected him to join Barcelona’s captaincy group last summer and, secondly, for neutrals who simply love the sport, watching Raphinha in action has become joyful. Whether he plays down the left, the right or in Barcelona’s fabled No10 position, he oozes gusto, inventiveness, creativity, and he has formed exceptional relationships with both the veteran Lewandowski and the teenage genius that is Lamine Yamal.
“You could say I’m living the best moment of my career because I have my best stats. But I began this season with a different kind of motivation thanks to the captaincy thing. Honestly, if you asked me last season if that was something I was expecting, I’d have said, ‘No!’
“That’s because of the moment I’d been experiencing: I was not confident, and I wasn’t consistent. So, it was far from my expectations – I didn’t see myself as one of Barcelona’s captains. This season, my confidence changed, my mindset changed, and the fact that I don’t accept losing might help me to display leadership on and off the pitch.
“I have always been a fighter. That’s one of my strengths. And the manager gives me a lot of confidence, on and off the pitch. The fact that everyone accepted me as a captain was really important to help me understand my role in the dressing room and on the pitch. Whenever someone needs something, I’m willing to help. Moreover, confidence is important for any professional, not just footballers. When you’re very confident, your way of working is different. Things happen naturally.”
Raphinha fits into a large category of South American players for whom early life proved brutally arduous, and likewise the start of their playing careers. Even the humblest dreams often seemed out of reach. Hence the fierce combative spirit etched deep into his character.
He and his family were often too poor for him to afford the bus ticket to training, or the entry fee which his junior side were required to produce in order to play in local tournaments. None of that makes him unique. But it did condition how tenacious and resourceful he became, especially given that he was often turned down because of his physique.
“Eventually, this all gave me more will to fight for what I wanted, but there were some tournaments I didn’t play in because I didn’t have the money to pay an entry fee. And I was very small, very thin, meaning I was rejected many times in the youth categories. They said I didn’t have the strength or the size to be able to compete.
“That simply gave me the hunger to fight and to prove that the size or strength of a person don’t attest to their ability to play football. I believe that intelligence and skills need to be taken into consideration. Leo Messi is small and, in my opinion, he is the best of all time. Neymar was slender when he was playing at Santos and he did what he did, then he came to Barcelona and he was still skinny but did everything he did here. So, I think people shouldn’t prioritise strength and size over a player’s skills and intelligence. Anyway, I struggled a lot with that when I was a kid, meaning I had to battle and fight for my dreams.”
Unfortunately, this sport we cherish doesn’t always show its friendly face, even to the most doughty or diligent. Far from it. So, when Raphinha first joined Barcelona from Leeds United in 2022, he found the experience so tough that it very nearly forced him to accept defeat – the concept he hates the most – and to throw his hands up in surrender.
Not long after that hat-trick against Bayern, Raphinha admitted to Catalan radio station RAC1 that, after training, he had often gone home to his wife either in tears or doubting whether he had any future at the club. He called football a sport which could “destroy you”, and admitted that on many mornings he awoke without the will to go and train. His upset wife, he explained, “didn’t really know how to help me”. Naturally, he was tempted to give up.
It’s Raphinha himself who deserves the vast majority of the credit for taking that situation, reversing it, and rising to become arguably Barcelona’s most important footballer this season. The way he tells it to us, however, he didn’t achieve all that on his own. Sports psychology played a huge role, for a start.
“When you change teams – be it as a player, coach or in another role – adapting is something you’ve just got to get through,” he says. “Adapting to new team-mates, your new coach and the way of playing in a team that’s new to you. That’s natural in football, and in the world in general. When you move locations in any profession, you’ve got to adapt to your new company.
“The difference in football is that people expect results really quickly. It may or may not happen. In general, people need to bed in, to keep calm and work hard because, with work, you can adapt a lot quicker. Fortunately, I’ve had a lot of help from my team-mates, the coaching staff, the coach, the board and the president. When I arrived, though, I wasn’t working with a psychologist. Later, due to the difficulties I went through, I ended up looking for a professional to get help, to understand what I was feeling. And that was very important.
“Getting help from a specialised psychology professional is always helpful. It’s important to understand ourselves, our feelings, what we’re dealing with, everything we can do to adapt faster. I think it’s important not only for our work but for all professionals. It can help all of us understand problems we had in the past which we end up blocking for some reason. A psychologist can help us understand and heal traumas from our childhood and bring coping ideas for problems in the present and future. It’s fundamental to understand ourselves. But it’s difficult.”
A contributory explanation for Raphinha’s determination to triumph at Barcelona reverberates back to his youth, when he was transfixed not only by the success of Ronaldinho but the way in which his fellow Brazilian was adored at the Camp Nou.
“To be honest, I really admired him as a person. In every game, he did something different. When I was young, we’d all be waiting for Barcelona to play to see what Ronaldinho would do in the game. He’d always surprise us with something special. That’s how it was, and he never disappointed us. He always did something magical. I guess it was much better for those in the stadium, but for us watching on TV it was spectacular. Back then, I didn’t imagine playing here. It was really distant for me.”
That distant dream inched a little closer when, thanks to his dad’s musical skills, he was brought along to one of Ronaldinho’s birthday celebrations. Raphinha, the little kid, couldn’t believe he was in the presence of the great man. And even now, as a high-profile professional, he’s still struck by the fact that he met his hero. It almost feels like an imagined memory – but for one thing.
“Well, I was really young, and I don’t remember an awful lot about it except I know I was there because I got a photo with him! Music and football in Brazil have always been associated with one another. I don’t know if this applies abroad, I reckon so, but football without music just doesn’t work. My parents were there, as was my younger brother, and many other children were also around that day. But I got that photo taken with Ronaldinho that day.”
When it’s time to wrap up the interview, I close by asking him one of those questions which so many players and coaches like to dodge. Most of them dedicate every single iota of their energy and determination towards winning big trophies, but if you ask them whether they can envisage it happening, many shy away from the idea – as if answering honestly might somehow jinx it all.
Not the case with Barça’s No11 when I press him on club football’s grandest prize.
“Yes, I see myself winning the Champions League,” he says, without hesitation. “I don’t know when, but I see myself winning it. I feel that I will, so I’ll fight to achieve it. I have a mental image of me being there, celebrating with the trophy. It’s a dream of mine, and dreams are meant to come true. So, I envisage myself lifting that trophy, celebrating with fans and team-mates, and adding another major title to this club’s history.”
Whether, on that imagined night, he’ll still be complaining if his team have lost the possession stats… well, I think you know the answer.
