Forget Haaland, Kane & Mbappe – Raphinha is the best footballer in the world | OneFootball

Take a look at any Ballon d’Or power rankings and the same three names dominate. Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane.

If there’s to be an outsider, Barcelona wonderkid Lamine Yamal – last year’s runner-up – appears to be it.

Mea Culpa. That includes ourselves. That’s our top three, with Yamal in fourth.

Raphinha doesn’t even make our top 10. You won’t find the Brazilian’s name in many other top 10 lists, either.

To be fair, the forward has endured a slow, injury-hit first half of the season. With the likes of Michael Olise and Luis Diaz shining, it was all too easy to overlook a sidelined player.

We fully expect things to change as we approach the business end of the 2025-26 campaign and this summer’s World Cup. Spoiler alert: Raphinha will definitely feature in our upcoming January update of the Ballon d’Or rankings.

You have to account for the way these things work as opposed to the way they should work. Mohamed Salah and Raphinha failing to make last year’s podium was extremely harsh, given their historic campaigns for Liverpool and Barcelona, respectively.

Barcelona manager Hansi Flick recognises that.

“When you see the matches he played, how many goals he scored, assists he has, it’s unbelievable. More, it’s influence (he had on) the team. This is really not fair to him,” he told reporters when the FIFPRO World 11 was unveiled back in November.

“For me it’s a joke, I cannot believe he’s not in the best XI because after this season he deserved it, it’s unbelievable.”

You always expect a manager to go to bat for their players. But Flick’s staunch endorsement of Raphinha goes to the very heart of what makes him special.

Any coach’s dream. Not only does he contribute consistently in terms of end product, but he also makes the team tick.

He’s arguably the most important player for Flick’s high-wire Barcelona. They are night and day with and without him. He sets the tone.

Just look at how the team stuttered in his absence in the autumn.

A hamstring injury left him sidelined for the 2-1 defeat at home to PSG and the shock 3-3 draw with Club Brugge.

Barcelona were effectively out of the game – limp, two goals down and reduced to 10 men – when he was introduced in the final half hour of their particularly poor showing away to Chelsea.

In La Liga, there was a disastrous 4-1 defeat to Sevilla. A deserved 2-1 defeat away to Real Madrid in stark contrast to their four Clasico victories – all of which featured Raphinha in resplendent form, notching five goals and two assists – under Flick last season.

Without Raphinha, Barca were a rabble. Utterly incapable of going deep in the Champions League, likely to be found out by any serious opponent.

Now he’s back and they’re once again looking like the thrilling side that were a whisker away from reaching last season’s final.

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After emerging victorious in the Spanish Super Cup final, Barcelona have now won five of their last six meetings with Real Madrid. Which was the one Raphinha missed?

“His mentality is unbelievable,” Flick said of Raphinha’s man-of-the-match, two-goal display out in Saudi Arabia.

“He has a dynamic, which affects the whole team. You can see he missed the first chance he had in the game, but for the second one, he was there, he shoots the first goal and gives the team more confidence.

“This is what he brings. Rapha on the pitch is a lot of intensity, and we need this.”

The first-half chance that Raphinha missed was a shocker. The kind that Kane, Mbappe or Haaland would tuck away in their sleep.

He’s not quite as refined as the world’s best goalscorers. Other wingers might strike more fear into their opposing full-backs. He doesn’t quite possess the get-you-up-off-your-feet magic of Yamal.

Mbappe’s goalscoring return for Real Madrid is frightening, but has he genuinely made them any better? The (lack of) silverware doesn’t suggest so.

Haaland’s breaking all kinds of records at Manchester City, but does he make them more one-dimensional? Uncharacteristic of a Pep Guardiola team, they look toothless if you stop the supply.

Kane might well be producing the best football of his career at Bayern Munich right now, but he still has a lot to prove outside of a Bundesliga context. The Champions League knockouts will be key.

Is there another player in world football who can claim to elevate their team as much as Raphinha?

In a collective sport, isn’t that the most important thing?