Ex-Barcelona SD explains Raphinha signing – ‘Just after Manchester United and Chelsea spent €100m’ | OneFootball

Barcelona have been criticised for the signing of Raphinha over the last two seasons but as the Brazilian moves through the gears this season, those critics are being forced to eat their words. The winger has 8 goals and 8 assists in just 13 appearances so far, including two hat-tricks.

His performance against Bayern Munich seemed to be a changing of status moment, where he left behind that criticism and made it clear that the ‘new’ Raphinha is here to stay. His triple was highly impressive in each instance, showing the quality that had not been evident during his first two seasons. Former Barcelona Sporting Director Jordi Cruyff has spoken about his signing, noting that they contacted Raphinha’s then agent Deco before they knew he was the Brazilian’s representative.

“Whenever we had questions about Brazilian or Portuguese players, we always asked his advice, I knew him well. It’s true that we spoke about Raphinha, without knowing really that he was his agent. We weren’t at the negotiating stage at that point.”

“As always, when things are going badly, you have to raise your hand, and when things are going well, equally, and obviously it’s partly the work of the manager, and with Mateu [Alemany] we had to make sure the numbers fit.”

Barcelona spent a reported €58m on Raphinha, with some questioning the wisdom of spending big on a winger with several others in attack already. Cruyff explained that for them, Raphinha represented market value.

“What I remember about that transfer was the timing though. Within two weeks, Manchester United spent €100m on a player from Ajax, and Chelsea on the Ukrainian, so for us it seemed like an acceptable price. Perhaps he doesn’t get to what people expect of Brazilians, there are always tricky moments at the start.”

“But I think he has taken a step forward this season, him too, after a complicated summer due to the rumours, the famous ‘entorno’ at the club. Now, as captain, he feels like a new player, and nowadays I would say he is being one of the best players at Barcelona.”

The Dutchman is referring to the €95m move that Antony made from Ajax to Manchester United, and Mykhaylo Mudryk’s switch from Shakhtar Donetsk to Chelsea. The latter set them back €70m, and poignantly, was left out of Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea squad on the same day ahead of their tie with Panathinaikos.

Cruyff was even tracking Raphinha several years earlier, when the winger was at Vitoria Guimaraes in Portugal, and he was at Maccabi Tel-Aviv. It would have been around 2016-17 when Raphinha was offered to them.

“Yes, he’s a player we made an offer for when he was in Portugal, I was at Maccabi, but the price was out of our range when he was offered to us. We liked him a lot, then you lose track again, but then he did a very good job at Leeds, but above all, due to his capacity to work, defensively, in attack, in transitions, he runs a lot more than many attackers tend to.”

“We thought he could help us when we lost the ball, and we are seeing now this season, he feels free,” Cruyff explained to Movistar+.