Raphinha
Raphinha (Credits: Twitter)

Raphinha’s transfer saga finally came to end this week as Barcelona secured his services from Leeds United. The Spanish giants unveiled their latest recruit on Friday (July 15) as Raphinha spoke about his desire to emulate Brazilian icons like Ronaldinho and Neymar at Camp Nou.

Raphinha was linked with several big clubs liked Arsenal and Chelsea but had his heart set at Barcelona. As per media reports, Chelsea had already struck a deal with Leeds but Raphinha was not ready to leave Leeds for any other club other than Barcelona.

Such was his desperation to join Barcelona that his agent Deco waived his agent’s fee to push a deal through. Speaking at his unveiling, Raphinha said: “I feel privileged to be here. It’s very exciting. I can’t believe it. 

“I started to find out about Barça when they signed Ronaldinho. When I left Brazil I wanted to fulfil my dream of playing for Barça. I would already sign to be half of what Ronaldinho was at Barça.

“Together with Deco or Neymar he also had an influence. He is a player that I admire a lot. I dreamed of making history at Barça and being a champion with Barca like they did,” he added.

Ronaldinho and Neymar are definitely two of the most successful Brazilians to have played for the Spanish outfit. Ronaldinho won two LaLiga titles and two Spanish Cups as well as a Champions League, with 164 goal contributions in 207 games.

Neymar, on the other hand, won a Champions League, Club World Cup, European Supercup, three Spanish Cups and a Spanish Super Cup, before leaving for PSG for a world-record fee of £200m.

Fans troll Leeds after Raphinha deal:

As if losing a player like Raphinha was not enough, Leeds are also being trolled on the social media by the fans for the transfer statement they made following the winger’s departure.

Raphinha
Raphinha (Credits: Twitter)

It all started when Leeds took to Twitter to state that Raphinha was sold to Barcelona ‘for an undisclosed fee’. And the undisclosed fee part made the fans come up with hilarious tweets as they made fun of Leeds at the expense of Barcelona who are still going through a financial turmoil.

Here are some of the reactions: