Color Sanji, younger or older, looks less like Rayleigh than older Zoro, who is almost a carbon copy bar the hair.
Viz translation.
Explicitly said he has announced and explained it himself.
Also, it was released after EL. He was definitely not free then.
That's your interpretation as someone who desperately wants it to be Sanji.
I'm saying that it could also be Zoro. Which is a fair game. There's not a single instance in history of all Manga where Sanji has explicitly and clearly been called #2, RHM, or VC for SHP. Zoro many times. Black Maria could've easily singled him out as such, but she didn't. Only vague instance is Queen, but even his dialogue can be applied to Zoro.
Anime straight up applies it to Zoro. Manga has more ambiguity, but I'll go with what has anime backing because otherwise we just don't know.
Even Kaido knew of Zoro's name alongside his epithet lol. To say Queen is ignorant is hilarious.
Man... I showed you the raw with LITERAL word "Partner". The one exactly same as that used for Roger/Rayleigh.
Unless you think Roger called Rayleigh a friend instead of partner, too. But even then, that word for "friend" has only been used for Zoro/Rayleigh and no one else.