At the Puskas Arena, Portugal had been unable to do anything about the Hungarians' dense defense, and just when it was impossible to attack for a long time, coach Fernando Santos waved the flag and replaced him with substitute right winger Rafa Silva; in just 24 minutes, Rafa Silva contributed two assists and created a penalty to help the defending champion to open the door - what kind of growth experience does such an understood Portuguese international have?
Rafa Silva (right)
Rafa Silva was born on 17 May 1993 in the small town of Jiabao in the Lisbon region, with a permanent population of just over 10,000, and the football atmosphere is not as strong as in some big cities. At the age of 9, Rafa Silva joined his hometown of Bova Athletic and officially began his football career.
In 2004, Portugal lost to Greece and missed the European Championship, but there was still a football boom on the mainland. It was in that year that Alverca (maniche, Deco and Ricardo Carvalho all played for this club) discovered Rafa Silva in a tournament and invited him to join. As Rafa Silva's mentor, Luis Trincaretas praised his disciple: "At that time, we invited him to join the junior team of Alveca, he was small and thin at the time, but when he played, he was always able to break through these physical limitations through his speed and intelligence. Soon, he dispelled all doubts. ”
Rafa Silva and his parents
Now that Luis Trincaretas has been promoted to vice-president of the Alverca club, he highlights the quietness and low-key of his former lovers when recalling rafa Silva's teenage years: "Compared to other children, Rafa is not so conspicuous, because in the dressing room, he does not play too much, he is very disciplined. Although he has long been a football star known to the public, Rafa Silva, who knows how to be grateful, has not forgotten the cultivation of Alveca: "In recent years, he has been busy with his career, and it is not an easy task for him to return to Alveca, but here he still has friends who have always been in touch, including some players in our team. ”
At alverca's academy, Rafa Silva spent 7 years of precious time, during which time coach Trincaretas also took him to a trial for Portuguese sports, but each time it was fruitless: "When I was still coaching in the echelon, I took him to the Alcochetti base of Portuguese sports for two trials, and they told me that Rafa was a player who interested them, but they never went further. During the game, Benfica's scouts also inspected him several times. ”
After turning 18, Rafa Silva decided to leave Alveca in search of further development; after receiving permission and encouragement from his father, João Silva, he went to the Phelans alone. In the view of coach Trincaretas, this was an extremely important turning point in Rafa Silva's football career: "At that time, our youth team was still playing in the National Youth League Second Division, but Raphael wanted to play in the First Division. For this, he wanted to join the Sakavins, but we did not accept it. Shortly after that, his father, João Silva, made a deal with the Phelans, and for Rafa, he was really lucky to play for the Phelans, and his father told me that it was a good thing for him to go there and live alone. This will prompt him to mature and make playing football his ability to survive. In the opinion of another academy coach, Paul Robles, Rafa Silva actually had further ambitions, and he was not surprised by the choice of his disciples: "His dreams are always a little bigger than others, he is a very ambitious person, but not to do anything about it." 」 ”
Rafa Silva also had inner struggles and insecurities after coming to Phelan, and then-academy coach Adolfo Teixeira still remembers Rafa's difficult start at Feren: "In the third training session, he came in the Ajax shirt because the club had not yet provided him with equipment, and I told the other players that I was scouting the new kid and each of them told me 'that kid has to stay because he's extraordinary'. ”
Rafa Silva of the Phelan period
It wasn't long before Rafa Silva went to Guimarães victory and Maritimo for a trial, but after a spin, he returned to the Phelans. According to Adolfo Teixeira, Rafa Silva used to live with some of the younger players, and in his daily life, Rafa would even take the initiative to take care of the young players: "He was like the father of these children, he was no longer in school, but these children still had school, he would come up to me and say, 'Coach, I take them to school, I will bring them back'. ”
In the 2011/12 season, Rafa Silva was already playing under Adolfo Teixeira, during which time Teixeira even recommended Rafa Silva to the then Guimarães manager Pedro Martins: "At the end of a game, I told him, 'Hey, Pedro, don't tell me, this kid can't even reach the level of Maritimo reserves, Rafa's potential is far beyond the average person.'" However, they never contacted Rafa Silva'. ”
Subsequently, Rafa Silva was called up to the first team by the Ferren's first team manager, Henrik Nunes, and in the first three rounds of the 2012/13 Portuguese League, Rafa Silva made two starts. Although Henrik Nunes was dismissed due to poor performance, his successor, Kim Machado, still entrusted Rafa with a heavy responsibility: "After only one week of training with him, I immediately realized that he would reach a very high level. I remember telling my friends and some people in football circles that Porto, Benfica and Sport of Portugal could not have signed him in the first place. ”
In the 2012/13 season, Rafa Silva scored 10 goals in the Portuguese First Division, tied with striker Jorge Gonçalves as the top scorer in the team. Teammate Aleksandr Ludović, who was selected for portugal's national youth team, has a very high opinion of Rafa: "He is fast and his technique is very good, he can play as a winger or he can ambush behind the center. He can upset the balance of the game, he has all the qualities to achieve great things. If you trust him, just give him the ball. ”
Rafa Silva and girlfriend
In addition to his skills, Ludovic was impressed by Rafa's character: "He was very close to his family, his family was very simple, very humble, and he also brought this quality here. I remember one time when we happened to be playing a game, he made a bet with his father that if he could score a certain amount of goals, he would have to quit smoking. After he reached his goal, he ran directly to his father's side and took the cigarette case away. There are a lot of people in our club who know about this, and he is such a responsible person who always thinks about others. He especially liked to laugh, he was always with Thiago Rosa, they all joked, such a good man, really can never be found again. ”
After this, Portuguese sports became interested in Rafa Silva, but the Braga club, which really implemented the action, successfully persuaded Rafa Silva to join and paid a transfer fee of 300,000 euros to the Feriens.
At the same time, Rafa Silva's home team, Alveca, cashed out 10% of its ownership in exchange for 32,000 euros. Years later, Rafa's mentor, Trincarettas, still regrets the hasty sale of his disciple's ownership: "If we knew he could have achieved what he has today, we would continue to keep his ownership so that we could get more money." ”
In braga's first season, Rafa Silva met the famous coach Jesuardo Ferreira who had just left Portuguese sports, although regarded as an "old-school coach", Ferreira was light on seniority in employment, from the beginning, he put Rafa into the starting lineup, but he also stressed that Rafa Silva must learn to play for the group: "He comes from the sub-league, there is no shortage of pursuit and hype around him, but everyone forgets that he is still in the process of studying hard, in my coaching career, He has met many talented players like Rafa, but as a 20-year-old player, he has no previous experience in the top league, he must learn to integrate the best individuals into the group, know how to cooperate with others, only in this way, he can become a top player. ”
Coach Ferreira has also argued with the media on how to use Rafa Silva, and in his opinion, Rafa is best suited to play a winger in the 433 formation than the traditional No. 10 position: "For me, he is more like a winger, in a three-striker formation, he will continue to play in this position, when the whole team is defending, he also has to learn to participate in the defense, forget the no. 10, in the past few years, I have only seen a pure no. 10, that is, Zinetin Zidane, he does not have the qualities of the no. 10 position, The No. 10 player doesn't have the same characteristics as him. ”
Rafa Silva
Coach Ferreira's teaching and guidance, Rafa Silva kept in mind, and in just one season, he was fully seated in Braga and became the first candidate for the left wing forward position. And the then national team coach Paul Bento did not forget him.
At the time, Bento was preparing for the 2014 World Cup, and he didn't have enough of a good ideal candidate for the crucial winger position: Nani was a marginal man at Manchester United that season, Barrera was in good and bad shape, Bruma and Vierina suffered serious injuries, and Ricardo Quaresma was even more uneasy.
After several inspections and screenings, Bento put Rafa Silva, who had not participated in the World Cup, directly into the 23-man squad for the World Cup, but he did not give Rafa Silva any chance to appear. After just three group games, Portugal also returned home.
In the next two seasons, Rafa Silva met two well-known managers, Sergio Concessan and Paul Fonseca. When Rafa fell into a slump, it was Concessan who openly supported his lover and calmed the controversy, and when Rafa encountered a bottleneck, it was Fonseca who clicked in time to make him an all-round attacker who could compete with Gaitan and Pitch. During this period, then Everton manager Robert Martinez and then Southampton manager Ronald Koeman wanted him, but the offers of both clubs could not meet Braga's psychological expectations.
In the summer of 2016, Rafa Silva won the European Championship with the Portuguese national team, after which he joined Benfica for a transfer fee of 16 million euros, setting a new record for the highest transfer fee in the Portuguese Premier League held by Moutinho. In fact, in addition to cash, Benfica also took the ownership of young striker Rui Fonte and loaned Argentine winger Oscar Benitez to Braga. In fact, Benfica's treatment conditions are far less than those of the rich Russian Super League giant Zenit, but in Rafa's view, Benfica's playing environment is more suitable for him, and he can continue to make progress here.
Coming to Benfica, Rafa Silva had to face fierce competition from the likes of Servi, Salvio and Zyvkovic, but also with the intense schedule and frequent changes of positions. Rafa's form has been all the way down during Rui Victoria's tenure, which also led to his absence from the 2018 World Cup. It wasn't until Laje and Jesus took office that Rafa Silva regained his peak form.
Last season, Rafa Silva, who plays mainly as a right winger, contributed a quasi-double-double of 9 goals and 10 assists, and in the first game of the European Championship against Hungary, he also continued his recent good performance, leading Portugal to a three-goal victory.
According to Rafa Silva, he is ready to play in the five major leagues after the European Championship, and in the eyes of his mentor Machado, the Premier League is the ideal foothold for Rafa: "At the first sight of him, you will think that his body is not very strong, but he has strength, he may be able to play very well in England, it is difficult to say which league is best for him, but England has a lot of top stars, he also has such strength, with his development in the past two years, it is not difficult for him to establish himself in England." If he goes there and plays, I'm sure he can get to the level of that top player. He may not reach the heights of Cristiano Ronaldo, but he will become a leader in Portuguese football in the future. ”