Despite living and being raised in Great Yarmouth, Rafael Gil was born in America and has spent much of his life in Poland , only moving to the UK in 1999.

Rafael Gil was released by Ipswich's youth team in the autumn of 2002. This young striker came to Carrow Road, made an impression with a hat-trick on his debut and was offered a place as a first year scholar at Norwich's academy in January 2003, starting in the summer of 2003. However he was not in the influx of new students that enrolled in July 2003 suggesting that he had parted company with the Canaries. Instead Gil signed for non-leaguers Gorleston.

Rafael later signed for Great Yarmouth and then spent some time with Cambridge United's youth setup before returning to Gorleston in February 2005. He joined Norwich United in the summer of 2006.

Since January 2009, Gil has played in Poland, initially with Hutnik Krakow in their Second Division. In 7 months, Gil scored seven times but the club went bankrupt and he moved to Okocimski Brzesko in January 2010