Rafaël Dias

Early career

Dias was born on 7 January 1991 in Covilhã, Portugal. At the age of six months, his family moved to France after his father, Quim Brito, a football player, signed with FC 4 Rivières 70, an amateur club located in Dampierre-sur-Salon in the Franche-Comté region. His uncle César Brito was also a footballer and played internationally for Portugal. Dias began his football career playing for 4 Rivières at the age of five in 1996. He spent seven years at the club and, in 2003, signed youth papers with professional club Sochaux.

Sochaux

Upon his arrival to the club, Dias was inserted into the club's youth academy. He quickly rose through the ranks of the academy and established himself as one of the club's top prospects in his age group alongside fellow midfielder Serdar Gürler, striker Cédric Bakambu, and goalkeeper Pierrick Cros. In the 2008–09 season, Dias began appearing with the club's reserve team in the Championnat de France amateur. He made his amateur debut on 29 November 2008 in a league match against Colmar appearing as a substitute. Dias finished the campaign with eight appearances; seven of them as a substitute. During the 2009–10 season, Dias continued to developed with the club's reserve team in the fourth division. He appeared in 15 matches scoring six goals. Also during the season, Dias was a part of the Sochaux under-19 team that reached the final of the Coupe Gambardella, the country's prestigious youth cup competition. In the lead…

Though Dias was born in Portugal, due to living in France since he was six months old, he acquired citizenship, thus making him eligible to represent both Portugal and France at international level. At the age of 14, Dias represented France at under-15 level. The following year, he was called up to the under-16 team by coach Francis Smerecki. Dias appeared in two friendly matches against Poland in March 2007. Between 2007 and 2010, Dias was not selected by Smerecki for international duty. In 2010, Dias announced his intent to represent Portugal at international level and confirmed his decision by declining the opportunity to attend a training camp for future France national under-21 players. He was later selected by the Portugal under-20 team. On 7 October 2010, Dias made his debut with the under-20 team in a friendly match against France. The following month, he was called up to the team against to participate in training sessions with the team preparing for the 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup.