Raphael Varane's Life and Career Journey in Football "Varane regularly fill the Real Madrid defender's post in subsequent seasons"

Raphael Xavier Varane was born on April 25, 1993 in Lille, France. Varane is a legacy of Martiniquais through his father, Gaston, who came from Le Morne-Rouge, while his mother, Annie, grew up in Saint-Amand-les-Eaux.

The father was the first to introduce soccer to him. From an early age, Varane always accompanied his father to play on his regional soccer team. When he returns home the father will teach him how to kick a good ball.

For the father, playing football is his desire, the father wants Varane to follow in his footsteps to love and understand the game of football.

Varane had tasted playing Rugby but after his first try he felt that Rugby was not a pleasant game. Varane then continued to focus on playing football. He never stopped playing soccer at his home.

He often praised his father for being so familiar with the world of the round leather, thanks to his father's upbringing too, Varane finally signed an agreement at his first club AS Hellemes at the age of seven.

After spending two years at his first club, in July 2002 he joined a professional club, RC Lens. Varane quickly rose to the rank of youth club. In the 2008/09 season, with team-mates Thorgan Hazard and Geoffrey Kondogbia, he played in the Lens U-16 team which won the Championnat National des 16 ans.

In the following season, Varane was promoted to the U-19 team, although two years younger than some of his team-mates. Towards the 2010/11 season, Varane signed his first professional contract.

Varane was then promoted to the second team that played in the amateur league Championnat de France. He made his amateur debut in a league match against Drancy with a 2-0 win.

October 2010, Varane was called by manager Jean-Guy Wallemme to train with the Lens senior team ahead of the match against Montpellier. He trained for one week, and because of the injury suffered by his colleague, Varane was then appointed to be the first choice in the match as well as his debut with the first team Lens.

On May 8, 2011, Varane scored his first professional goal in a match that ended 1–1 against Caen. Two weeks later, he captained Lens when they lost 1-0 to Arles-Avignon. In that season, in total he appeared in 24 matches.

In June 2011, Zinedine Zidane, who was then serving as Real Madrid advisor, called Varane to offer him to play at Real Madrid, but at that time Varane was focused on taking the school exam and asked Zidane to call him back after the school exams were over.

Then in the end Varane officially joined Real Madrid, he was assigned with jersey number 19 and made his debut in a pre-season match against the Los Angeles Galaxy in the 2011 World Football Challenge.

During the pre-season period, Varane was only absent in one match, he then played his competitive match against Racing Santander in La Liga, where El Real won 2-1. Varane at that time a duet with Carvalho as a central defender.

In the next league match, Varane returned as a starter and he scored his first goal for Madrid in a match against Rayo Vallecano. Varane's goal made him the youngest foreign player of 18 years and 152 days to score in a competitive match for Real Madrid.

On September 27, 2011, Varane appeared for the first time in a prestigious competition, the European Champions League in a 3-0 win over Dutch club Ajax Amsterdam in the group stage. His first season with Los Blancos was through with quite difficult, he only made 15 appearances and recorded 2 goals.

Even so, his brilliant performance in his debut season made Varane regularly fill the Real Madrid defender's post in subsequent seasons. He moved jersey number from 19 to number 2.

On January 30, 2013, Varane made his El Clásico debut against Barcelona in the 2012/13 Copa del Rey. He stopped several dangerous attempts from the Barcelona player, including a shot from Xavi which he cleared off the goal line.

Varane perfected his performance with a header that made the match ended 1-1. He also became the second youngest foreign player to score a goal for Real Madrid in the Clásico match. In the second leg at Camp Nou, Varane scored again the third goal and led Madrid to win 3-1.

In April 2013, Varane was named by renowned media, Marca as 'the eleven best foreign players in the history of Real Madrid'. His second season in Spain passed with 33 appearances.

In the following season, Varane more often struggling with injuries, as a result he only finished the season with 23 appearances. Including playing 120 minutes in the champions league final against Atletico Madrid, at the end of the match Varane celebrated by kicking the ball at Atletico coach Diego Simeone.

Suddenly it made the Argentine coach furious and kicked the ball back at Varane. Simeone ran into the field to approach Varane. Fortunately Simeone and Varane were immediately separated by coaching staff and players who saw the incident.

On 18 September 2014, Varane signed a new six-year contract that will keep him at Real Madrid until 2020. His appearance from season to season shows that he is worthy of being considered one of the world's top defenders.

Varane again helped Real Madrid dominate Europe in the 2015/16 season, when El Real defeated Atletico.

In the following season, Varane scored a total of 4 goals which was the most in his career. He also contributed to helping Los Galacticos win the Champions League and the La Liga title.

In the next two seasons, his role as central defender El Real was unstoppable, from the 2017/18 season to 2018/19 Varane played in 87 matches in all competitions and scored 2 goals.

Until now, Varane has spent eight seasons defending Real Madrid, a total of 16 trophies he managed to get, including 2 La Liga titles, 4 champions league trophies and 4 club world cup titles and several other trophies.

In the international stage, Varane defended the French national team in several matches in the age group. He then made his senior team debut on March 22, 2013 in a World Cup qualifier against Georgia, which France won 3-1.

The following year, Varane became the mainstay of France in the Brazilian World Cup. His neat appearance put his name in the top 3 as the tournament's best young player.

On October 14, 2014, Varane became the youngest player to captain France when he took over from Blaise Matuidi in the first round of the match against Armenia. He then captained the next match and managed to score his first goal for France.

Varane missed the 2016 European Cup due to injury, he later became the backbone of Les Bleus when he appeared as the best in the 2018 world cup. Playing in 7 matches and scoring 1 goal, his position was truly irreplaceable.

In the family tree, Varane has two siblings named Anthony and Jonathan. His brother, Anthony is a footballer who retired early because of an injury. While Jonathan is also a football player.

The husband of Camille Tytgat and the father of a son named Ruben continues to show consistency with Real Madrid. It is not impossible that one day Varane will be named the world's best defender.