Rafinia: I considered leaving Barcelona last summer, Coach Frick called me to stay

May 30th Barcelona striker Rafinia revealed in an interview with Daily Sports that coach Fric convinced himself to stay in Barcelona last summer.

You have renewed your contract with Barcelona until 2028 and are now on vacation. How do you feel?

I had already told the Chairman when I renewed my contract and I was very happy. The club trusts me again, which is special and I take it very seriously as a player. You need trust because this is where you work. This is also where I want to play. When you see that everyone trusts you and depends on you, this is a very special thing. I thank him for his trust. I'm not saying that I've been a Barcelona fan since I was a child. After all, I'm a Brazilian, but my goal has always been to be a professional player, so I do want to play for Barcelona. I am very happy to be able to come here and now renew my contract. Hopefully I can end my career here.

You scored 34 goals and assisted 24 times in Barcelona this season. Did you expect you to perform like this?

To be honest, I didn't expect that my personal goals were lower than these numbers. I am very happy to be able to score so many goals and give so many assists to the team. This made history and was the best season of my life, both in terms of my personal and team goals.

Have you ever considered leaving Barcelona?

It was not me who thought so alone. At that time, many people wanted me to leave, many fans, and perhaps the management were not satisfied with me, many people. My idea is that if you are not popular in a place, it is better not to stay there, it makes no sense to hit the south wall. I thought it through and if they don't want me to stay, I'll leave, I have my own goal, I want to play the game. Maybe before the season begins, I don’t think I can get a chance to play. But I know how to be myself and how to devote myself to my career. When I learned that Barcelona had changed coaches, I realized there was a new opportunity to showcase my potential and how I worked, which made me consider staying. And Coach Frick called me and told me he would count on me. That phone call is very important because it changed my mind. The only person who could stop me from leaving at that time was him, and he did.