Barcelona's Raphinha has now represented Brazil at two major tournaments, the 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2024 Copa America, and played many other qualifiers and friendlies with his home country.

But it almost never happened. The forward was close to representing Italy instead, donning the famous blue shirt and white shorts instead of the yellow shirt and blue shorts of Brazil. And he may even have won the Euros in the process.

Raphinha is considered a strong contender for the Ballon d'Or now, but he never received youth call-ups from any national team, and he was not a global name when he joined Leeds United from Rennes in 2020.

The following year, Italy were about to embark on a journey to win Euro 2020, delayed until 2021 due to the COVID pandemic.

It was at that time that Italy noticed Raphinha and found out that he was eligible to represent the Azzurri because his father, Rafael Dias Belloli, is of Italian descent.

The Italian federation reportedly made strong attempts to convince Raphinha to join Italy and give up on the idea of playing for Brazil, who had never called him up. He wouldn't have been alone in the Brazilian-Italian contingent as Italy brought Jorginho, Rafael Toloi, and Emerson Palmieri to the Euros. It would have still been unusual as Raphinha had never lived in Italy, whereas the other three had lived at least a few years in Italy before getting called up.

In the end, Raphinha's passport did not arrive in time so it was not possible. But it seems like it worked out for the best: Italy would go on to win the Euros that year and did not need Raphinha, while Raphinha was able to play for the team he really wanted to play for: Brazil.

Barcelona's Raphinha celebrates after scoring their third goal against Sevilla. PHOTO: REUTERS

"I was close to accepting the call-up to the Italy national team. I would have gone to the European Championships that they won in 2020. I was pretty much ready," Raphinha said in an interview.

"The guys from the Italian national team called me. Jorginho always called me. The Italian staff had this fantastic project for me, something that really impressed me. But at the same time, deep down, I still had that one percent hope of wearing the Brazil shirt. And fortunately, my Italian passport didn't arrive in time."

Raphinha may or may not have won the Euros had he been able to accept the call up (butterfly effect and all that), but it seems he has no regrets. He wants to win something for his birth country.