Raphinha was not a dream
Leeds were paying his wages and helping him achieve his goals. And Raphinha's respect for that was worth more than his love.
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If being Leeds is synonymous with being 'side before self, every time' then Raphinha is getting more Leeds, all the time, even while he plays for Barcelona. So Leeds, that I think one day he might come back.
This season's reports from Catalonia have been both extraordinary and typical. Barcelona, as they will, messed around in the transfer window and left themselves without a no.9 — Robert Lewandowski left, Julian Alvarez didn't arrive. Coming instead were wingers, Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi, more players to make it more difficult for Raphinha to get in the team. He already had Lamine Yamal to deal with.
He was also voted, by the squad, as club captain. And he had manager Hansi Flick asking him to try playing as a striker in pre-season. And now he has fourteen goals in eight games, back-to-back La Liga hat-tricks, and an even more integral role at a club that, since he arrived in 2022, has kept trying to reject him even as it makes him their leader.
It's relevant that Billy Bremner, originator of the side before self ethos at Leeds, also played as a striker when Leeds' needs must. When there was nothing else for it he'd be thrown up front, to throw himself at forward balls nobody his height should be winning. His stature could barely contain his heart, and it is significant to who he was that Bremner scored for Leeds in six semi-finals. I count ten of his 90 league goals scored in the final month of a season, too. He did what Leeds needed when Leeds needed it doing.
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