Raphinha embraces World Cup dream as Brazil eyes title drought end

For Raphinha, the World Cup is not just the game’s biggest stage. It is a place where Brazil’s past, and the memory of 2002, still presses against the present every time the Seleção walks out. The forward said representing Brazil at a World Cup “means everything,” and he linked that feeling to the title he remembered with his grandmother, a reminder that the weight of the yellow shirt is carried as much in families as in stadiums.

That burden lands on a player who arrived at the top level by a long way from home. Raphinha was born in Porto Alegre, in Rio Grande do Sul, and left Brazil for Europe in February 2016 as a virtually unknown teenager. His route took him through Vitória de Guimarães, Sporting, Rennes, Leeds and Barcelona, a climb that FIFA says has made him one of the most prolific players of his generation at 29.

His form in 2024-25 explained why his role has become so central. Raphinha finished as a joint top scorer in the UEFA Champions League and became the first Brazilian ever named La Liga Player of the Season. Those numbers have turned him from a promising export into one of the faces of Brazil’s current push toward the 2026 World Cup, where expectation is measured not only in goals but in history.

Brazil enters that chase as the most decorated nation in World Cup history, with five titles in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002. The last one came 24 years ago, when Brazil beat Germany 2-0 in the final in Yokohama, and that gap has hardened into a national fixation. Every new squad is asked to close it, every tournament framed as the one that should restore Brazil’s place at the summit.

Carlo Ancelotti now carries that assignment. Announced as Brazil’s coach in May 2025, he became the first foreign manager in the history of the Seleção, and his contract began on May 26, 2025. With Raphinha in form and Brazil still searching for a sixth crown, the story of the next World Cup is as much about inheritance as ambition, with nostalgia and pressure fused into one shirt.