Raphinha admits considering Barcelona exit 'several' times as Brazilian opens up on 'self doubt' before exploding for La Liga giants

The Brazil international swapped Leeds United for Barcelona in 2022 for an initial fee of £50 million ($59m) and since then he has gone onto skipper the Catalan outfit. However, the winger has repeatedly been linked with an exit from the Blaugrana, but now he is very content with Hansi Flick's team.

He told ESPN: "Man, there were several moments, not just one [when I considered leaving Barça]. My first six months here, the period from the summer transfer window until the World Cup, was a season in which I didn't have the best of starts, so it crossed my mind to leave the club. There was a lot of self doubt. I have a nasty habit of criticising myself heavily, so to speak, so that pressure made me think about leaving. Then, obviously, after the World Cup I had a huge turnaround, managing to put up great numbers in six months. Last season, after the injuries I had, the sending off [against Getafe in the first game of the campaign], and also at the end of the season, seeing a lot of things that the club wanted to sell me, that the fans wanted me to leave, it also ends up crossing your mind to leave, to go somewhere where there's no pressure."

The 27-year-old has become a vital player at Barcelona, particularly this season where he has scored nine goals and created eight assists in just 13 games in all competitions, including a Champions League hat-trick against Bayern Munich in midweek. The links with a transfer exit may fade away off the back of his stellar form for Barca.

Raphinha is likely to feature for Barcelona in their Clasico clash away at bitter rivals on Saturday night in a top-of-the-table La Liga encounter. Barca are three points ahead of Los Blancos heading into this crunch game.