Raphinha ended Leeds United's 20-year wait for world-class talisman and crafted a transfer blueprint

Gen Z were finally given some ammunition with Raphinha. For 20 years, that crop of Leeds United fans has had to listen to stories about the glory years of Don Revie, Howard Wilkinson and David O’Leary.

They had no comeback, no dewy-eyed memories of watching the club’s best-ever players in the flesh. Whenever their parents or grandparents took them down the pub or rolled back the years at the dinner table, all they could offer was League One or Steve Evans.

Raphinha changed all that. The Brazilian is the best player to have pulled on a Leeds shirt in 20 years and symbolised the club’s return to the top flight.

If Marcelo Bielsa paved the way for that return with promotion, Raphinha was the reward walking down the path for fans who had suffered for so long in the EFL. At his peak, Raphinha delivered world-class football on a weekly basis.

You have to go back to O’Leary’s Champions League era for the last player of that quality employed at Elland Road. Raphinha brought the unpredictable. You would travel to every match, home and away, in anticipation of what he might create.

There was the unmistakable sound of seats hitting backrests as supporters craned to see his magic when he set off down the right flank. The give-and-gos on the halfway line as he raced into space behind a sleeping left-back became synonymous with the Bielsa-Raphinha era.

The first memorable moment of quality came in a low-key second appearance. In the 84th minute of that memorable 3-0 win at Aston Villa (Patrick Bamford’s hat-trick), there was a cut inside from the right flank and a 40-yard, left-foot drill which took three Villa men out of the game.

It wasn’t a goal or an assist, but it was the first time we were given pause for thought about what