{"id":738448,"date":"2023-05-09T12:12:39","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T09:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.paokfc.gr\/uncategorized-en\/20230509-xronia-polla-rafa\/"},"modified":"2023-05-09T21:28:53","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T18:28:53","slug":"20230509-xronia-polla-rafa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paokfc.gr\/en\/news\/20230509-xronia-polla-rafa\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday Rafa!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a class=\"boldlink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.paokfc.gr\/en\/profiles\/luis-rafael-rafa-soares-en\/\">Rafa Soares<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>was born on 09.05.1995 in\u00a0<strong>Marco de Canavenses<\/strong>\u00a0in the\u00a0<strong>Porto<\/strong>\u00a0area. He joined the Academy of\u00a0<strong>Alpendorada<\/strong>\u00a0and proved to be talented player. His journey in football seemed to be already written.<\/p>\n<p>He joined the legendary academies of Porto. He played in all of the developmental age groups of the Dragons, as well as with the Under-19s in the UEFA Youth League, before reaching the second team. He made his professional debut in the second division in August 2013, while he was also capped at international level with all of his country\u2019s youth teams, playing in 2015 Under-20 World Championship.<\/p>\n<p>After two full seasons in the second division with\u00a0<strong>Porto B<\/strong>, in January 2016 he was loaned to\u00a0<strong>Akademica<\/strong>, with whom he played his first 15 games in the top flight.<\/p>\n<p>The following season he wore the\u00a0<strong>Rio Ave<\/strong>\u00a0jersey, again on loan. There he found space to let his playing virtues shine, and he immediately became a key player, closing out the season with 38 appearances, three goals and five assists.<\/p>\n<p>He returned to\u00a0<strong>Porto<\/strong>, but did not find a place in the squad, was loaned to\u00a0<strong>Fulham<\/strong>, and from there he moved on to\u00a0<strong>Portimonense<\/strong>. There he got the playing time he was looking for and when, in the summer of 2018, he was released from Porto, he was transferred to\u00a0<strong>Vitoria<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Guimaraes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>In his first season he made 31 appearances and produced five assists, while in his second season in the first half of the campaign he recorded another 15 appearances with one assist before leaving for Spain.\u00a0<strong>Eibar<\/strong>\u00a0gave him the opportunity to test his abilities in\u00a0<strong>La<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Liga<\/strong>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.paokfc.gr\/en\/profiles\/luis-rafael-rafa-soares-en\/\">Rafa<\/a>\u00a0did not miss the opportunity, joining on loan. He stayed in the team from the Basque country for 18 months, with a total record of 28 appearances.<\/p>\n<p>During season 2021-22,\u00a0<a class=\"boldlink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.paokfc.gr\/en\/profiles\/luis-rafael-rafa-soares-en\/\">Rafa<\/a>\u00a0was one of the top full-backs in the\u00a0<strong>Portuguese league<\/strong>. He played in 34 games, scored two goals and served up eight assists in the most productive season of his career.<\/p>\n<p>His contract with\u00a0<strong>Vitoria<\/strong>\u00a0came to an end, and\u00a0<strong>PAOK<\/strong>\u00a0opted to move to bring the player to the club to cover the left side of the team\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Portuguese<\/strong> full-back has made 31 appearances this season, chalking up five assists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our defender Rafa Soares turns 28 today, and PAOK FC would like to wish him many years of health, happiness and successes on both a personal and professional level.","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":738425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1520,5],"tags":[2378,2457,2534,3766,15489],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.5.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Happy Birthday Rafa! 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