Raphinha starred as a right winger during his time in the Premier League but has shown incredible versatility since moving to Barcelona.

The Brazil international was unfortunate to miss out on the Ballon d’Or after a superb 2024-25 campaign on the left wing, and has now started this campaign as the central striker in Hansi Flick’s side.

Here are 15 other players who thrived after changing positions.

When Arsenal signed Henry from Juventus in 1999, he was a winger who had struggled to make an impact in Serie A.

But Arsene Wenger had other ideas.

“At a certain point, I wanted to go to Wenger and tell him to put me back out wide,” Henry once said, reflecting on a period when he failed to score in his first seven Premier League appearances.

“Then, I said to myself that I had to react, that I couldn’t fail a second time, only a few months after a negative experience in Turin.”

The perfect lesson in perseverance, Henry went on to score 228 goals in 376 games for the Gunners. Wenger can feel pretty smug about this one.

It is often forgotten that when putting in the performance which introduced Bale to the world, the astonishing hat-trick in the San Siro in Tottenham’s 4-3 defeat in 2010, the unstoppable Welshman flying down the wing was wearing the No.3 shirt, having largely being considered a left-back until that moment.

“The most amazing thing ever was that when we played them at home, they left Maicon at right‑back, one against one, against Gareth,” recalled Harry Redknapp in 2015.

“He destroyed him again. It was the end of Maicon. He went from being the best right-back in the world to hearing chants of ‘Taxi for Maicon’.”

It is quite fitting that due to the presence of Raul, Ronaldo was unable to take his favoured No.7 shirt when he joined Real Madrid and instead spent his debut campaign at the Bernabeu wearing the No.9.

After first coming to prominence on the wing, Sir Alex Ferguson was eventually left with no choice but to push Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez out wide to accommodate Ronaldo as a central striker.

Considering the number of goals Ronaldo has gone on to score, Rooney and Tevez shouldn’t feel too put out.

Dembele arrived at Barcelona with a reputation as one of the most exciting young wingers in the world, but his six-year spell at the club was plagued by injury problems and inconsistencies in front of goal.

His most memorable moment at Camp Nou is arguably him missing a chance to give Barca a 4-0 first-leg lead over Liverpool in the 2019 Champions League semi-final.

Nobody in the stadium on that night would have predicted that the France international would become the main striker at Paris Saint-Germain a few years later.

But he has thrived in that role under Luis Enrique, winning back-to-back Champions League titles and a Ballon d’Or in the last two years.

Giggs was the archetypal winger for the majority of his Manchester United career: direct, quick, skilful and with an eye for a goal or assist – just watch his famous goal against Arsenal in the 1999 FA Cup semi-final for an example of everything you could want in a left winger.

In his later years, however, Giggs displayed the footballing intelligence to be the calming influence in the centre of United’s midfield, picking the passes for the more explosive attackers, to the benefit of the likes of Rooney and Ronaldo.

With Sami Khedira injured in the warm-up, Christoph Kramer concussed early doors and Toni Kroos struggling on the biggest stage, Schweinsteiger produced the definitive performance of his career in the final of the 2014 World Cup.

From central midfield, Schweinsteiger almost single-handedly battled with the whole Argentina XI, leaving the Maracana with a black eye, bloodied face and, most importantly, a World Cup winner’s medal.

It was a far cry from the first eight years of his senior career, which he spent playing out wide, watching on as the likes of Jens Jeremies, Niko Kovacs, Owen Hargreaves and Michael Ballack were deployed in the centre of Bayern Munich’s midfield.

He had another positional change towards the end of his career, playing as a centre-back for MLS side Chicago Fire.

Everyone’s favourite bearded maestro has defined a generation of deep-lying playmakers and inspired fans across the world to learn what the word ‘regista’ means.

But Pirlo actually started out as a No.10 – or trequartista – at Brescia, Inter and Reggina.

Carlo Ancelotti eventually deployed Pirlo in a deeper role at AC Milan, with the player himself saying: “He changed my career, putting me in front of the defence. We shared some unforgettable moments. We had a magnificent past together.”

Joelinton joined Newcastle United in a then-club record £40million deal in 2019 and was handed the No.9 shirt, following in the footsteps of Alan Shearer, Les Ferdinand and Andy Cole.

He scored just six Premier League goals across his first two seasons at the club and appeared destined for the St James’ Park exit.

But everything changed following the appointment of Eddie Howe, who made the inspired decision to move the Brazil international into midfield.

He has since become a fan favourite with his all-action performances in the middle of the park and was part of the side that ended a 56-year trophy drought with victory in the 2025 Carabao Cup final.

Lahm already had several strings to his bow with his ability to be able to play in either full-back role to a world-class standard.

But the arrival of Pep Guardiola as Bayern Munich manager saw Lahm move into midfield, followed by typically world-class performances.

“Philipp Lahm is perhaps the most intelligent player I have ever trained in my career,” Guardiola said. “He is at another level.”

Fabinho also started his career as a full-back, before a phone call with the then-Monaco manager Leonardo Jardim turned him into a defensive midfielder ahead of the 2016-17 season.

“Considering my situation with the national team, plus the smaller pool of top-quality full-backs, I thought it was a negative change,” Fabinho said.

“It was tough. Everybody knew me as a full-back and I was a regular for the national team there – my agents, and I suppose me to begin with, weren’t happy at all with the situation. I accepted the challenge because I knew I could adapt.

“Looking back, though, that was a life-changing moment.”

It definitely was. The Brazil international moved to Liverpool two years later and established himself as one of the best defensive midfielders in the world.

White joined Arsenal from Brighton in a £50million deal in the summer of 2021 and formed an impressive centre-back partnership with Gabriel Magalhaes in his debut season.

The emergence of William Saliba threatened his place in the starting line-up, but his move to right-back allowed Mikel Arteta to play all three in the same defence.

He is now considered one of the best in his position in the Premier League and helped the Gunners secure the top-flight title in 2025-26.

There’s no shame in not being able to break into a Barcelona midfield of Sergio Busquets, Xavi and Andres Iniesta, so Mascherano instead reinvented himself as a centre-back at Camp Nou.

“I had zero experience in that role but it happened naturally,” he said. “That’s part of evolution, to be ready to realise that in a midfield position I would have few opportunities to play.

“So I had to find a place in defence, hold onto that and fight to play more. It’s very clear to me that had that change of position not occurred, I would have been out of Barcelona many years ago.”

The Argentina international remained at Camp Nou until his departure in 2018, having made 334 appearances for the club in all competitions.

“There was a time when I saw players of the class of Angel Di Maria and Memphis Depay arriving and wondered if my time was reaching an end,” Valencia once said.

As a winger, the Ecuador international had initially shone after making the step up from Wigan Athletic to Manchester United, winning the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year awards in 2011-12, but his form dipped under the pressure of being handed the famous No.7 shirt at Old Trafford.

Valencia’s response to the challenge of regaining his best form for the Red Devils was simple: “I just concentrated and trained hard.”

A positional change was also key and by January 2017, Jose Mourinho had labelled Valencia “the best right-back in the world”.

In 1999, Zambrotta joined Juventus from Bari as one of the most exciting wingers in Italy.

An injury at the 2002 World Cup, however, saw Mauro Camoranesi impress in his place on the right wing for Juve, forcing Marcello Lippi to convert Zambrotta into a full-back upon his return.

Capable of operating on either side of the defence, Zambrotta took to the role like a duck to water, winning honours with Juventus, Barcelona and Milan, plus the 2006 World Cup, as a master of the position.

In 1990, Matthaus was named German Footballer of the Year after captaining the national team to glory at the World Cup, scoring four goals from midfield. In fact, in his first 12 seasons as a first-team footballer, he scored 168 goals as a midfielder.

In 1998, Matthaus was named German Footballer of the Year at the grand old age of 38, shining as a defender or sweeper at Bayern Munich.

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