Raphinha has drawn a clear line from the present to the future, naming Lamine Yamal and Est\u00eav\u00e3o as the young players most likely to dominate world football for years. The Brazilian winger, who was in contention to win the 2025 Ballon d\u2019Or, bases that view on close, first-hand experience. He shares a dressing room with Yamal at Bar\u00e7a and links up with Est\u00eav\u00e3o for Brazil, giving him a daily perspective on both players.<\/p>\n
Raphinha spoke in unambiguous terms about their potential. \u201cTo me they are to players of a spectacular level,\u201d Raphinha said . \u201cI think that in the coming years, the next many years of their career, they\u2019ll be the best players in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure of this because I work with Lamine [Yamal] at the club and with Est\u00eav\u00e3o in the national team and to me, they\u2019re two tremendous talents. Being at the top depends a lot more on them than anything else.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure they\u2019re on the right path to be the best at their positions, at their clubs, at their national teams. I try to help them with the experience I have, but I\u2019m sure they\u2019re talents that will fly for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raphinha\u2019s optimism comes as football prepares to mark the final World Cup appearances of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the pair who have been the game\u2019s reference points and who won 13 Ballons d\u2019Or between them. That transition in the sport\u2019s hierarchy frames the significance of the next generation.<\/p>\n
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca and teammate Marc Cucurella have also commented on the pair\u2019s impact, each emphasising enjoyment of the game and the players\u2019 shared qualities. \u201cIt\u2019s nice for people that love football to watch players like Est\u00eav\u00e3o, like Lamine Yamal, like Pedri. This is the beauty of football. So, we are happy that Est\u00eav\u00e3o is with us,\u201d the Blues boss said .<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me personally, the most important thing for Est\u00eav\u00e3o is that he has to enjoy football, he has to be happy. He has not to think about being better than this player or the other player, he has just to be better than himself day by day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cVery special players, they have a lot of talent,\u201d Cucurella said . \u201cThey always want the ball, they always try to do one by ones. They can decide games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Raphinha says Yamal and Est\u00eav\u00e3o are set to become the best players worldwide in the coming years…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1017,190,961],"tags":[1064,1033,1019],"class_list":["post-4700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona","category-chelsea","category-international","tag-ballon-dor-2","tag-brazilian-football","tag-creative-players"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}