Rafinha Alcantara retires as injuries end stop-start elite career
Rafinha Alcantara
December 2025
Barcelona treble winner Rafinha has confirmed his retirement from professional football, drawing a line under a career shaped by immense technical talent but repeatedly disrupted by injuries, which limited his impact and curtailed the sustained rhythm required to fully match expectations around his famous footballing family. Emerging from La Masia and debuting for Barça in 2011, Rafinha spent nine uneven years at Camp Nou, punctuated by layoffs and loans, before a 2020 move to PSG. Despite flashes of class and major honours, he never escaped comparisons to brother Thiago, with fitness issues ultimately dictating his decision to walk away.