Stuart Dallas has been reminded of former Leeds United star Raphinha while watching Manchester City in recent weeks thanks to one impressive player.
Raphinha will always be fondly remembered at Leeds United after his fantastic stint at the club.
The Brazilian winger moved to Elland Road from Rennes in October 2020 and spent less than two years in Yorkshire.
Yet, he made a big impact in his short time at Leeds, scoring 17 goals and setting up another 12 in 67 appearances and wowing fans time and again with his thrilling skill.
Raphinha impressed so much that he earned interest from big suitors and joined Barcelona in a £55m move in 2022, making Leeds nearly £40m in profit.
The 28-year-old has gone on to even bigger heights in Catalonia and Leeds legend Stuart Dallas sees a lot of him in new Manchester City star Omar Marmoush.
Stuart Dallas compares Raphinha to Man City’s Omar Marmoush
City signed Marmoush in the January transfer window to bolster their squad amid a terrible season and the Egyptian has hit the ground running in Manchester.
Speaking to Stadium Astro after Marmoush scored a hat-trick against Newcastle United recently, Dallas said: “He has a lot more quality than I ever had.
“He’s a fantastic player and my game was based on running, that was my biggest strength. He obviously has a lot more quality.
“A lot of his actions, I think back to when I played with Raphinha. At times he’s comfortable coming in receiving the ball, making things happen and he’s also comfortable [with] that run that he makes, Raphinha was absolutely brilliant at that.
“We’ve seen how he’s doing at Barcelona now but certainly some similar traits in terms of how they move. It’ll be interesting to see how he performs for the rest of the season.”
Is Raphinha the captain of Barcelona?
Though Leeds fans loved Raphinha, not many predicted the forward would go on to have the career he has had at Barcelona.
It initially looked as though the 28-year-old would struggle after his big move to the Camp Nou but he has pushed his game on to even higher levels over the last year and has become one of their most crucial players.
So much so that Raphinha is now one of the club’s five captains and has skippered the side on the field on several occasions.
Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen is the club captain but Raphinha is one of the five leaders and is fourth in the pecking order.
In 125 appearances for the club he has scored 44 goals and made 43 assists.
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