Raphael Lea’i impresses with his hard-working mentality as he adapts to European football

Since Raphael Lea’i joined FK Velež Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina top-tier league, the Solomon Islands star got a lot of recognition worldwide. His development in his first pro-contract is being followed closely by a lot fans not only in his home country.

Lea’i took part of his team camp in Antalya, Turkey where he participated in friendly matches in order to prepare for the restart of the season in Bosnia. Oceania Football Center talked to Adnan Dizdarević, staff member of Velež Mostar, and he spoke about the views of the staff team on the development of Raphael in Europe: “Raphael is adapting to the way of training and matches with us, it is quite different from what he used to do, I hope that he will improve in the future and become a quality striker“, said Dizdarević.

Previously, Lea’i played a friendly match in Mostar where he assisted and scored one goal. Later, he joined the training camp in Turkey where his team played several friendly matches against clubs from countries such as Ukraine and Romania. “He is hard-working, diligent, wants to learn and progress“, added the Velež coach.

The first competitive match of 2023 and potentially the professional debut of Raphael Lea’i is scheduled to be played on Saturday (18th Feb) for the Bosnian Cup; Velež will be play against the also first-tier team HSK Posusje.