An important player for both FC Barcelona and the Brazil national team, Raphinha is currently one of the most popular names in world football. Naturally, this also comes with significant financial benefit, and the forward earns an estimated gross fixed salary of €16.67 million (£14 million) per year with his club.
However, things weren’t always this comfortable financially. Growing up, Raphinha lived in Restinga, a low-income area and favela in Porto Alegre. His family struggled financially to the point where making ends meet on a daily basis was a major struggle.
Despite this, Raphinha was able to rub shoulders with one of the most iconic footballers of all time in his childhood days.
A recently emerged image from 2003 shows a seven-year-old Raphinha in Ronaldinho’s arms. He had allegedly visited the legendary attacking midfielder’s residence in Porto Alegre for a party.
While plenty of questions may pop into one’s head upon seeing this image, one of the biggest surely has to be how Raphinha ended up partying with one of Brazil’s most well-known celebrities despite coming from an extremely humble background?
The answer to this lies in his father, Raphael’s profession. A musician and percussionist by trade, Raphael Belloli played in a Brazilian band named Samba Tri. Though he was not a superstar by any stretch of the imagination, Ronaldinho was a big fan of his work, and he invited Raphael to play music at his party.
Raphinha ended up tagging along with his dad, resulting in a memorable interaction with one of his footballing idols.
While many have assumed the event to be Ronaldinho’s birthday, it was actually a farewell party before sealing his move to FC Barcelona. Raphinha confirmed this in an interview with GOAL Brazil.
“It was basically a farewell party for his friends and family,” Raphinha told GOAL.
As fate would have it, what was initially a chance interaction now looks like a remarkable full circle moment between two of Porto Alegre’s greatest talents.
Back then, Ronaldinho was on his way to Europe to begin his career at Barcelona. He spent five seasons at Camp Nou, dazzling fans with every skill and flick in his arsenal.
Now, more than 20 years later, Raphinha is the first-choice captain of the Catalan Giants, enjoying a similar kind of status and reputation amongst Barça fans all over the world that his idol once did.
