Rafael Carioca (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Rafael de Souza Pereira (born January 16, 1989 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), most commonly known as Rafael Carioca, is a Brazilian midfielder who currently plays for Vasco on loan from Spartak Moscow. Rafael came to Gremio in 2006, as an amateur player. In 2007, he captained the Under-20 side and featured in the Sendai Cup for the Brazil Under-18 national team in the same year but was an unused substitute in the tournament. He was promoted to the first team after captaining the youth side in the Copa Sao Paulo de Futebol Junior by the coach Vagner Mancini, but soon was relegated to the youth squad because of his lack of commitment in pre-season training.