The mystery of Raphinha: a neighborhood of outlaws, Ronaldinho's bongos and the contradiction in Barcelona

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The image shocked.

While the Bayern fans who lived in the attic of the Camp Nou had a great time cheering their players for having once again eliminated Barcelona from the Champions League, a Barça player,

(Porto Alegre, Brazil, 1996), walked up to the center of the field.

Only.

With his head sunken, he clapped his hands to nothing and stood there for a while, as if he was unable to decipher what was happening around him.

Raphinha, whose smile usually lights up breakfasts in the dining room of the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper and who likes to get close to anyone who projects joy, had been left without his favorite vital shield.

Beyond his innate abilities as a footballer, Raphinha has always found refuge in that smile that has been fading.

The same one with which he got ahead as a child among the rubble of the Restinga neighborhood, a place that the Brazilian military dictatorship built specifically for the outlaws in the mid-1960s. Given the government's need to turn Porto Alegre into a city pleasing to his eyes, the most humble population was torn from their houses in the center of the city with just what they were wearing and deported 25 kilometers further, to Restinga.

Poverty, more bearable when it is invisible, could continue its course there.

They would already manage without infrastructure, drinking water or electricity.

Raphinha, who has once admitted that he came to beg on the street, is the son of that underworld born of social intolerance.

Looking back is never easy.

Raphinha now has a privileged position.

He plays where he always dreamed of, at Barcelona.

He finds peace in his family and his dog.

And not a day goes by that he is not reminded of the long-standing friendship between his father, Rafael, and his childhood idol,

.

Because

, a musician by profession and known as

, was one of Ronaldinho's favorite minstrels during his time in Barcelona.

He was accompanied

and

, the other members of the Samba Tri group.

How to forget the one that was mounted when Ronaldinho decided to get on stage with them at the Sala Bikini in Barcelona to hit the bongo drums, although poorly hidden behind a mask.

The leading role of Dembélé

That crossroads allowed

, an essential piece in that Rat Pack of Ronaldinho in the

and with

as president, to weave the necessary ties to end up being Raphinha's representative.

Deco convinced Laporta last summer of the convenience of a transfer whose total cost, according to what was published, amounted to 58 million euros plus another seven in variables.

Regarding the commissions paid to Deco, the club preferred to leave the amount in the mist.

's priority

was always the renewal of

.

Once achieved, it was surprising that Barcelona rushed to attack such a large operation for another winger and thus leave the great aspiration of the Barça coach, the interior

, fallow .

Although Xavi also looked favorably on the arrival of Raphinha given his initial idea that Barça would be a team of extremes.

And Raphinha offered a record that had nothing to do with Dembélé's histrionic anarchy.

The Brazilian proposed an appreciable spirit of sacrifice after having passed through the hands of

at Leeds.

This led

to make Raphinha a regular starter in that Brazil that had become one of the great candidates to win the World Cup in Qatar.

Raphinha, in front of Gayà, on Sunday in Mestalla.AP

But Raphinha has suddenly found herself cut off from the big stage.

While Dembélé gathered prominence, the participation of the Brazilian was diminishing to the beat of his confidence.

Of the 15 games played, he only played more than 65 minutes in two.

Pointed out by the setbacks against Inter and Real Madrid, the Brazilian comes to thread four substitutions.

In his last appearance at the Mestalla, where he appeared with half an hour to go, he combined an error in the shot with the assist that allowed

to start the victory.

At this start of the season, Raphinha has barely been able to add two goal passes and has only seen the net once (at Pizjuán).

In this Barcelona that this Tuesday says goodbye to the Champions League in Pilsen from insignificance, Raphinha will have a new opportunity to solve the mystery of the lost smile.

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• Ousmane Dembele

• Joan Laporta

• Xavi Hernandez

• football

• Brazil National Soccer Team