Former Barcelona midfielder Rafinha Alcântara has hung up his boots at the tender age of 32, younger than three players on the club’s current roster.

The ex-Brazil international was born into a footballing family. Son of World Cup winner Mazinho and brother to Thiago Alcântara, who would also represent Barça as well as Bayern Munich and Liverpool, Rafinha’s attempts to replicate the heights of his predecessors were perennially punctured by injuries.

The technically gifted left footer made his senior debut for Barcelona in November 2011 and wouldn’t leave the club on a permanent basis to join Paris Saint-Germain until October 2020. Yet, across those nine years, Rafinha only mustered 90 appearances for the Blaugrana.

A favorite of Luis Enrique, his coach at Barcelona B and while on loan at Celta Vigo, Rafinha became an increasing first-team fixture under the Asturian head coach during the treble-winning 2014–15 campaign. Yet, in September of the following season, the bandy-legged playmaker would suffer the first of three serious knee injuries during his time in Catalonia, consigned to the treatment room for 182 days.

Rafinha returned in time for one of the most famous nights in Barcelona’s glittering Champions League history, starting the iconic 6–1 comeback against his future club PSG to overturn a 4–0 first-leg deficit in the 2017 round of 16.

A serious meniscus problem would soon follow before a second cruciate ligament tear in November 2018 effectively ended his Barcelona career. Rafinha would offer glimpses of his evident, innate quality while on loan at Inter and Celta Vigo before joining PSG in 2020. Injuries would continue to dog the forever smiley figure, and it was another serious knee problem which eventually forced him to call it quits.

Seventeen months on from the expiry of his contract at Qatari outfit Al Arabi, Rafinha took to social media to announce the inevitable.

“After some time away from the pitch and following a long recovery, the time has come to make something important public. I have made the decision to retire,” he said in a video posted on Instagram.

“A little over a year ago, I suffered a knee injury which, unfortunately, prevents me from returning to compete at the highest level. It was hard to accept that I couldn’t continue. Thank you to my family for always being there, to everyone for the love and support. Thank you, football, for making me who I am. Goodbye.”

Barcelona Respond to Rafinha Retirement

It had been more than six years since Rafinha last kicked a ball for Barcelona, but the club still felt compelled to wish their former player farewell. In a post on X, the Catalan giants wrote: “Thank you for your football and for defending these colors with pride and commitment.

“Good luck in this new stage.”

The post showed Rafinha pictured with the La Liga trophy from the 2014–15 campaign, his first and most successful season as a fully-fledged first-team player. The Brazilian would feature in 36 matches across all competitions that term as Enrique’s Barcelona romped to a European treble.

By the time of the Champions League final in Berlin, Rafinha was just 22. He had won every major trophy available and racked up 156 appearances at various levels of the footballing pyramid. The world was at his feet. Across the next decade, he would only muster 202 more outings and never again scale those same heights.

Yet, as he said in his farewell video, this sport and all its inherent cruelties made him who he is. In response, all he had to say was “Thank you” and “Goodbye.”

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Barcelona Favorite Announces Retirement at Shockingly Young Age.

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