Brazil forward Raphinha: "Of course I am going to stay at Barcelona"
The former Leeds man has been linked with a transfer but intends to stay put
Raphinha's future at Barcelona is still up in the air, but the forward has made his umpteenth declaration of intent. The Brazilian does not want to move from the Catalan capital and hopes to fulfill his contract (until 30 June 2027) and wear the Blaugrana shirt beyond that date.
"Of course, I'm going to stay at Barcelona," explained Raphinha in an interview with the magazine Club del deportista. "Next season and the next, and the next. I have many years of contract and I hope to fulfill those years and many other. Barcelona is a city that I love. We Brazilians are very happy here."
The winger is self-critical of his first months at Barça, but praises his performance after -- "my first six months were difficult," he admitted.
Raphinha considers that "it was a start to the season in which I scored few goals, made few assists and had no direct participation in the team," but later "I began to adapt better, my teammates helped me a lot and we managed to win the Super Cup and LaLiga with a fairly large margin of points."
If anything characterises the Blaugrana No.22, it is his ambition and in the aforementioned interview he recognised that "the Champions League is the objective for next season" because "when a player arrives at Barcelona he has to be ready to win all the competitions he plays in."
Finally, he also wanted to have good words for his coach at the club, Xavi Hernandez, a great supporter of his signing when the player played for Leeds United in the Premier League.
"We have a coach who knows perfectly the way Barcelona play, someone who knows the club inside out. Xavi knew what he could do with this group," he said.
