Barcelona captain celebrates 28th birthday with historic Champions League milestone | OneFootball

Home to many great footballers of various generations, FC Barcelona has a unique place in history. Throughout the decades, some of the very best players to ever touch a football have represented the Catalan club. Even today, Barcelona proudly keeps that honorable tradition alive.

Players like Robert Lewandowski, Pedri, Lamine Yamal, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Dani Olmo, and many others have proven themselves to be top-class footballers as they continue to help Hansi Flick’s team. However, it is often through records that the greats establish themselves.

Lewandowski, the team’s centre-forward, is a legendary Polish striker and he managed to reach a century of UEFA Champions League goals in this ongoing season. Yet, rather interestingly, he is not the only Barcelona forward to have reached a great milestone in the competition this season.

As highlighted by Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona captain Raphinha will be celebrating his 28th birthday right now while having also accomplished a massive milestone in the Champions League this year. For the now 28-year-old winger, this year of his matches the numbers of the very best of Brazilian stars that have ever graced the competition.

Across the year, the Brazilian winger has contributed to 12 goals in the competition. Against Paris Saint-Germain in last season’s knockout games, Raphinha managed to score three goals across both legs. He also managed an assist in the second half of last season’s campaign in the competition.

Now, in this ongoing campaign, he has already scored six goals, including a hattrick against Bayern Munich, and has also provided two assists. That brings his total tally to 12 goal contributions in 2024, and it is the most any Brazilian player across the competition’s history has managed to contribute.

Four other players also match these numbers, and that simply shows the kind of elite company Raphinha is in. Rivaldo, in 2000, did it with Barcelona, and Giovane Elber did it after him in 2001 with Bayern Munich. Neymar Jr later managed to do it twice, once with Barcelona and then with PSG, and Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr managed to match Raphinha in 2024 as well.

With no more Champions League games to play this year before 2025 kicks off, both Raphinha and Vinicius Jr have joined a historic group of players. Both Barcelona and Real Madrid, however, will continue to strive for more and even more exciting things could end up happening in the second half of this campaign.