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Raphinha Steals the Show in Barcelona's Statement Win over Bayern

Barcelona's Raphinha celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Barcelona and Bayern Munich at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Barcelona's Raphinha celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Barcelona and Bayern Munich at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
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Raphinha Steals the Show in Barcelona's Statement Win over Bayern

Barcelona's Raphinha celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Barcelona and Bayern Munich at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Barcelona's Raphinha celebrates after scoring his side's third goal during the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Barcelona and Bayern Munich at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Barcelona's game against Bayern Munich was billed as a duel between Harry Kane and Robert Lewandowski. Then Raphinha stole the show and left to a standing ovation.
Kane and Lewandowski both scored, but the Brazilian winger's hat trick for Barcelona outshone both of the strikers in Barcelona's 4-1 statement win in the Champions League on Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.
“I have a fantastic team, and the players are unbelievable. But I’ve never had a player like Raphinha, because he’s incredibly dynamic both with and without the ball,” Barcelona coach Hansi Flick said. “Every single team needs him, but we have him.”
Raphinha joined a select group of players who've scored hat tricks against Bayern in the Champions League — only Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Aguero and Roy Makaay had done it before.
“He always gives 100% in good and bad times. He’s working just as hard and giving everything for all his teammates. I’m so happy for him tonight,” defender Jules Koundé said of Raphinha.
Each of his three goals stood out in its own way. First, Raphinha darted in behind Bayern's defense to score in the very first minute, then he shot the ball between defender Dayot Upamecano's legs to score his second just before halftime.
The third goal saw Raphinha display his technique to control Lamine Yamal's cross-field pass on his chest and exploit the gap between two defenders before completing the hat trick.
Barcelona's fans were again on their feet to applaud when Raphinha, who had also captained the team because of Marc-André ter Stegen's injury, was substituted in the 75th, leaving him a little fresher for Saturday's “Clasico” against Real Madrid.
Raphinha's demolition job on the Bayern defense also means plaudits for Flick, who was the comprehensive winner against his old team, Bayern, with whom Flick beat Barcelona 8-2 in 2020.
The loss throws Bayern's season under new coach Vincent Kompany into turmoil.
Bayern began its Champions League campaign with a record-breaking 9-2 demolition of Croatia's Dinamo Zagreb but is now 23rd in the Champions League standings, one place below Zagreb, after back-to-back losses to Aston Villa and Barcelona. Across all competitions, Bayern has won just one of its last five games.
The ease with which Raphinha was able to exploit gaps in the back line could reopen questions about whether Bayern, which has now conceded seven goals in its last three games, remains fragile in defense.

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Tunisian Freediver Eyes Records and Developing the Sport

Walid Boudhiaf, Franco-Tunisian freediving world champion, stands near fishing boats before a training session at the Carthage Punic Ports near Tunis on October 17, 2024. (Photo by FETHI BELAID / AFP)
Walid Boudhiaf, Franco-Tunisian freediving world champion, stands near fishing boats before a training session at the Carthage Punic Ports near Tunis on October 17, 2024. (Photo by FETHI BELAID / AFP)
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Tunisian Freediver Eyes Records and Developing the Sport

Walid Boudhiaf, Franco-Tunisian freediving world champion, stands near fishing boats before a training session at the Carthage Punic Ports near Tunis on October 17, 2024. (Photo by FETHI BELAID / AFP)
Walid Boudhiaf, Franco-Tunisian freediving world champion, stands near fishing boats before a training session at the Carthage Punic Ports near Tunis on October 17, 2024. (Photo by FETHI BELAID / AFP)

Tunisian freediver Walid Boudhiaf, the Arab world's only international champion in the sport and a one-time world record holder at 150 meters, is eyeing new achievements and hopes to expand the sport in his home country, where "thousands practice it without even realizing.”

During a recent visit to Tunisia, the 46-year-old, who spends half the year in Colombia and the other half training in the Bahamas, shared his remarkable journey with AFP.

Though he grew up in Tunisia, where he spent most of his summers by the sea, Boudhiaf didn't discover freediving until later.

His father, a Tunisian university professor, and French doctor mother were both "sea lovers" and taught him to swim at the age of three, later introducing him to spearfishing.

By his mid-20s, freediving came to him a continent away and nowhere near the sea -- "by chance in a pool in Bogota,” the Colombian capital that sits over a thousand kilometers from the Pacific Ocean.

Boudhiaf initially took up underwater rugby, which, he said, proved "not aggressive enough.”

His coach had then noticed his ability to control his breath, which years later would help him achieve a personal record of seven minutes 38 seconds.

Boudhiaf said living in Bogota at 2,600 meters above sea level has also helped develop "excellent cardiovascular conditions" by stimulating red blood cell production due to the low oxygen levels.

He then began training up to six hours a day, he said, while balancing a job as a computer engineer.

"I stopped going out," he recalls. "All I did was train."

- World record -

Boudhiaf entered his first competition in Marseille in 2007, but it wasn't until 2012 that he was able to fully dedicate himself to freediving, following a "last job in the Canary Islands, where I went to be closer to the sea.”

Today, thanks to sponsorship from Tunisian companies, he can finally make a living from his passion and also organizes workshops and conferences based around the sport.

In Egypt in 2021, he gained international renown when he set a world record at 150 meters in the variable weight category, which requires using a pulling rope on the way down and fins to go back up.

He said he was inspired by Luc Besson's 1988 film "The Big Blue" that put freediving on the map, and the achievements of legendary diver Umberto Pelizzari.

"It was a dream that I had since I watched 'The Big Blue' and saw Umberto Pelizzari's records," he said. "One hundred fifty meters is a symbolic frontier, a testament to human potential."

Boudhiaf was also crowned world champion in 2022, diving to 116 meters in free immersion apnea timed at three minutes 54 seconds.

After collecting several medals at the Deep Blue competition in Dominica this past April -- one gold, two silver, and one bronze -- he has been training for the 2025 Vertical Blue, an elite freediving competition held in the Bahamas, which he calls "the Wimbledon of freediving".

He is hoping to beat the constant weight record of 136 meters, currently held by Russia's Alexey Molchanov, who broke Boudhiaf's variable weight record with a depth of 156 meters in March 2023.

- 'Everyone can do it' -

Beyond competing and pursuing records, which "have ups and downs and challenges to maintaining peak performance", another focus of Boudhiaf's is growing the sport in Tunisia.

"Many Tunisians are already practicing it without knowing it, through amateur spearfishing, which is a form of freediving," he said, referring to Tunisia's long-standing traditions of sponge diving and coral collecting.

Additionally, interest in pool-based freediving is growing, he added, especially at the Rades Olympic Complex near Tunis.

"I'm motivated to provide more support," Boudhiaf said, adding that the sport required little resources and equipment and that it "isn't a sport for the wealthy".

While Egypt, Greece or Türkiye are better for competition-oriented training with "very deep spots close to the shore" in the Mediterranean, according to Boudhiaf, Tunisia is still suitable for "recreational freediving”

"You don't need to dive 100 meters," he said. "At 20, 30, or 50 meters, beginners can improve and even reach an advanced level."

Freediving is also "the most natural way to observe and interact with marine life," he added.

Breathing techniques also promote good health, he said, because the exercises can help manage stress.