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In Barcelona’s 4-1 victory over Levante at Nou Camp on Sunday, Brazillian forward Neymar was one of the players to have registered his name on the goalscorers sheet and dedicate the goal to his injured teammate Rafinha, Mirror reports.
The young midfielder damaged his anterior cruciate ligaments during Wednesday night’s 1-1 Champions League draw against Roma. Rafinha was unfortunate to be hit with an injury setback having come on just three minutes into the game. After extensive tests, Barcelona announced that their young midfielder is set to miss the remainder of the season after the surgery. This is a big blow to the Catalan side who has had to deal with several injuries already this season and were unable to bring on squad players this past summer due to their on-going transfer ban.
However, his compatriot Neymar Jr and the rest of the Barcelona players have rallied round the 22-year-old starlet. The Brazillian forward paid tribute to his teammate after finding the net during Barcelona’ s La Liga fixture against Levante on Sunday. Neymar Jr displayed Rafinha’ s name on a shirt with his number on right after scoring the second goal early in the second half.
Besides Neymar, Marc Batra and Lionel Messi were the other goalscorers for Barcelona on the night. The Argentina international yet again gave out a stand out performance by scoring a brace despite missing an opportunity to score from the spot. Along with the goals, he managed to rack up an assist to his name.
Barcelona’s request to replace Turan for Rafinha not accepted by FIFA
Even though Barcelona was handed a transfer ban by FIFA, they still went on to sign Turkish midfielder Arda Turan from their direct rivals Atletico Madrid. Following Rafinha’s injury which will keep him out of the remaining season, Barcelona made a request to register Arda Turan as a replacement for Rafinha.
But according to Catalan newspaper SPORT as conveyed by the Mirror, Spanish FA was approached by the Barca hierarchy to register new signing Arda Turan immediately. However, the Spanish FA and FIFA stand by their decision to ban Barcelona who have been unable to register new players throughout 2015 owing to a FIFA transfer ban imposed over irregularities in signing youth players.
According to the regulations, Barcelona will not be able to register summer signing Aleix Vidal and Arda Turan but the ban is set to expire in January for the Blaugrana side. The reigning Spanish champions now make an away trip to Celta Vigo for their next La Liga fixture.
