Former Leeds United ace makes Champions League history and snatches a Lionel Messi record in the process

Former Leeds United star Raphinha has written himself into the Barcelona history books.

During his two seasons at Elland Road, he became a fan favourite and a key player for manager at the time, Marcelo Bielsa, who was no stranger to setting records himself.

Arriving in October 2020, he scored 17 Premier League goals and 12 assists in 65 appearances.

During his first season, he helped Leeds secure a respectable ninth-place finish, and in his second, his 11 league goals proved crucial in the club’s narrow escape from relegation.

His impactful time in Yorkshire paved the way for his move to Barcelona, but he isn’t the first Leeds player to have his career propelled by a stint at Elland Road.

Raphinha signed a five-year contract for a reported initial fee of £50m, despite interest from other Premier League clubs such as Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.

He had a shaky start in Spain, with tactical adaptations from Marcelo Bielsa’s style of football to Barcelona’s style of play, to more competition for places with players like Ousmane Dembélé.

Despite this, the arrival of manager Hansi Flick turned things around for the Brazilian. Flick had confidence in the player and has since unlocked Raphinha’s potential.

Following last night’s Champions League fixture versus Inter Milan, which ended 3-3, Raphinha has 30 goals, and 23 assists in all competitions.

In La Liga, he has 15 goals and 9 assists in 31 appearances whilst his Champions League stats are 12 goals and 8 assists in 13 matches.

His resurrection has also seen him break a record that nobody else has come close to before.

Raphinha breaks Lionel Messi Barcelona record
Raphinha has now surpassed a record only held by GOAT himself, Lionel Messi.

He has 20 UCL goal contributions this season, overtaking Messi for the most in a season for Barcelona.

His record-breaking assist came during their exciting 3-3 draw against Inter Milan.

His header to assist Ferran Torres was his 20th goal contribution in the Champions League this season.

Raphinha is now also just one shy of the single-season record set by Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Brazilian forward is also just one assist away from equalling Luis Figo’s nine assists in the 1999-2000 campaign.

Raphinha made an instant impression at Leeds United
In 2020, Marcelo Bielsa was not even scouting when he first saw Raphinha in action, a video from a game between Nice and Rennes.

And it was none other than Bielsa’s right-hand man, Andres Clavijo, who flagged Raphinha to the boss.

You may remember Clavijo as Bielsa’s translator but in truth his role was much broader than that, working as an analyst for the coach, with a particular specialism in French football.

Clavijo has since described it as “absolutely crazy” to think that he was working with a future Ballon d’Or candidate.

“I did a video of Nice versus Rennes and Raphinha tore the Nice left-back to shreds. Marcelo saw it and said to me, ‘Who is this player?’ I said, ‘That is Raphinha, he has had an unbelievable season, helping Rennes to qualify for the Champions League.’

“I remember saying to him, ‘He is probably way out of our budget because I am sure they will not let him go for anything less than £30m after the season he has had.’ They had just bought him from Sporting the season before for around £20m.

“But I think Marcelo then contacted the director of football Victor Orta. Victor reached out to Rennes and they said it was impossible but it came about in the last couple of days of the window. It was crazy that we pulled that off. We could not believe our luck.”

“He is by far the best player that I have had the pleasure of being around. He is crazy talented but his work ethic is unbelievable,” says Clavijo.

“From the first day, he was just incredible in training. If you talk to any of the boys that were there at the time, they will tell you how good he was in training. He was just on a different level to everybody else. But the work rate is really what surprised everybody.

“His physical numbers were out of this world. It was just incredible.” Indeed, during his debut season as a Premier League player, his only full season under Bielsa, Raphinha made 715 sprints, the most by any winger that year, despite missing eight matches.