Following his hat-trick and a Man of the Match performance against Bayern Munich in his last appearance, Raphinha will definitely be one of the star attractions in the Barcelona attack in the upcoming game against Real Madrid.
The Brazilian winger will be particularly eager to put in a strong performance to help his team get a win after seeing his teammates not getting a victory against their traditional rivals in any of their last four meetings.
But as SPORT has reported, the 27-year-old Barcelona winger might have a soft spot for one of the Merengue players as well, as he had the midfielder Eduardo Camavinga as a teammate at one point in his career.
The two players played together, only for one season, 2019-2020, at the French side Rennes. Raphinha joined the French side in the summer of 2019, as he made his move to Europe from Brazil. He left the club one year later, on the last day of the 2020 summer transfer window.
Meanwhile, Camavinga started the season with the second team, and made his debut with the Rennes first-team on 6th August 2019, in a match against Angers. He also left the French side two years later, as he joined Real Madrid on the last day of the 2021 summer transfer window.
In the single season that Raphinha and Camavinga played together, Rennes were able to finish third in Ligue 1, and thus qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in the club’s history. One factor that contributed to this qualification was the earlier ending of the Ligue 1 campaign due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Raphinha played mainly as a winger that season, making 30 appearances with the French club, scoring 7 goals and assisting another 4. Camavinga played 36 games in total, scoring 1 goal and providing 2 assists.
