Barcelona winger Raphinha has spoken out over an incident at Disneyland Paris. It’s not every day that a world-class footballer lodges a complaint about a theme park, but the Brazilian international - among the frontrunners for next month’s Ballon d’Or - has alleged that staff ignored his young son while engaging with other children.
The 28-year-old is currently on duty with Brazil and featured in their 3-0 World Cup qualifier victory over Chile on Friday night, with Bolivia up next on Wednesday. His family, however, appear to be in France, where the incident was recorded.
In a post shared on his Instagram story on Friday afternoon, Raphinha voiced his anger, suggesting the behaviour may have been racially motivated, and posted footage appearing to show his young child, Gael, who is three years old, being deliberately overlooked by a park mascot.
Raphinha Calls Out Disneyland Paris on Instagram Story
Raphinha
The former Leeds United winger shared a series of videos filmed by his family, showing his young son being ignored by a mascot while nearby children were hugged and entertained. On his Instagram stories, he wrote (see the posts below):
“Your employees are a disgrace. You shouldn’t treat people like that, especially a CHILD. You’re supposed to make children happy, not snub a child. I prefer to say it was snubbing, to say nothing else. You’re a disgrace @DisneylandParis.
"I understand the fatigue of those who work with this, but why were all the white children embraced and my son wasn't? I hate you @DisneylandParis."
In a follow-up story, he added, “He just wanted a hi and a hug. Lucky for you, he doesn’t understand," while his last post remarked: "@DisneylandParis this employee is s***. @DisneylandParis this employee is stupid." At the time of writing, neither Disneyland Paris, Raphinha, his club Barcelona, nor the Brazil football authorities have put out an official statement on the incident.
Raphinha
In the meantime, Raphinha will remain focused on his duties with Brazil as he looks to cement his place at the World Cup. Three of the 10 South American sides have already secured qualification - Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador - while Uruguay, Paraguay and Colombia still have work to do to book their spots directly.
So far in the 2025/26 campaign, the 28-year-old has scored once and assisted once in three La Liga appearances as Barcelona sit fourth in the table. They have won twice and drawn once in three outings with Real Madrid and Getafe the only two sides boasting a 100 per cent record so far.