Rafael Batista da Silva Júnior

Two days into his first Brazil call-up, Rafael Juninho scored. The forward made his debut for the under-16 side against Wales on 9 April 2022; on 11 April he found the net against Spain.

Peruíbe, on the São Paulo coast, sent him to SC Corinthians as a boy. A season at Jabaquara in 2017 interrupted the run, then he came back. The numbers from the age groups tilt one way: 47 matches and 12 goals for the under-17s, 63 matches and 7 goals for the under-20s, where the scoring dried up as the opposition grew. He was in the Corinthians squad for the Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior in both 2023 and 2024, and he signed an amateur contract with the senior side that ran to January 2024. He never played a competitive senior match for the club.

The route out was FK Maxline Vitebsk, a loan to Belarus that began in March 2025 and ran to February 2026. That was where his professional career actually started: 29 appearances, four league goals, and a Belarusian Premier League title in 2025. Accounts of his overall tally differ, but the league record stands.

February 2026 brought a second loan, this time to FK IMT Novi Beograd in the Serbian SuperLiga, where he took the number 11. Six appearances by May 2026, one goal and one assist — a small sample in a third country in three years.