Bringing Leeds a nice amount of money in the summer, Raphinha hasn’t quite hit the ground running at Barcelona to date.
We have covered numerous articles about his struggles since leaving Elland Road, with some reports in Spain going as far as saying the club were dumbfounded at his performances on the pitch when comparing them to his training sessions.
A lot of that might have been with the fact that he was being played out of position, something the Brazilian has since spoken to Xavi about and hopes is sorted.
Still, Leeds won’t care all that much about his form away from the Premier League, since they have cashed in the money and spent it elsewhere, but what he does at Barcelona does matter to Brazil.
The forward was called up to the national team by Tite for the World Cup, and while he might not be a starter, he will play an important part in the competition.
Marca sat down with Gilberto Silva to discuss various members of the squad, including the former Leeds man, which is when the ex-midfielder brought up the Elland Road side.
He said: “He is a good player. Now he is in a big team like Barcelona that is different from Leeds, who are also important in England. He has left English football after many years and is ripe to do a good job in Barcelona.”
