Barcelona's Raphinha reveals thoughts of summer exit

Raphinha has been Barcelona's undisputed star of the season thus far, but revealed that he considered leaving the club over the summer.

He's the only player in La Liga to boast as many as five goals and five assists this term, and is fresh from a brutally efficient Champions League hat-trick against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night.

The 2023/24 campaign was not so successful. After losing his starting role on the right wing to teenage phenom Lamine Yamal, Raphinha spent much of the off-season listening to growing whispers of his potential departure. Fans, former players and reportedly some members of the club's board were keen on using his sale to fund a move for Athletic Club's star winger Nico Williams. This torrent of external noise made the forward consider his future in Catalonia.

"Last season," Raphinha told ESPN earlier this week, "After the injuries I had, the sending off [against Getafe in the first game of the campaign], and also at the end of the season, seeing a lot of things that the club wanted to sell me, that the fans wanted me to leave, it also ends up crossing your mind to leave, to go somewhere where there's no pressure."

However, last summer was not the first time that Raphinha has mulled over a Barcelona exit. As he explained: "Man, there were several moments, not just one."

Raphinha joined Barcelona in 2022 after narrowly avoiding Premier League relegation with Leeds United and initially struggled to adapt. "My first six months here, the period from the summer transfer window until the World Cup, was a season in which I didn't have the best of starts, so it crossed my mind to leave the club," the 27-year-old revealed.

"There was a lot of self doubt. I have a nasty habit of criticising myself heavily, so to speak, so that pressure made me think about leaving. Then, obviously, after the World Cup I had a huge turnaround, managing to put up great numbers in six months."

Raphinha struggled to make the same decisive impact throughout the 2023/24 campaign, but looks a man transformed following the summer appointment of Hansi Flick.

"Football has to have a little pressure," the Brazilian reasoned. "I've always dreamed of playing for big clubs, playing big games for the national team, and you can't realise those dreams without pressure, the pressure comes with it.

"So, thank God, I didn't let myself get carried away by those thoughts that, naturally, end up going through your head. I just focused on working hard and adapting to the new roles I'd have to play on the pitch."

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