Barcelona star Raphinha on Wednesday night secured for himself a place in an altogether exclusive Blaugrana club.
This came owing to his exploits in the club’s latest outing.
Hansi Flick’s side of course marked their return to action a short time ago, welcoming Racing Santander to Catalunya’s capital with sights on a 7th successive victory to open the campaign.
The aforementioned Raphinha for his part featured from the off in the fixture, from his new position at centre-forward. And en route to an eventual 6-2 Barcelona triumph, the former Leeds United man proved himself the star of the show.
Raphinha was on target to the tune of a hat-trick, including a brace of penalties either side of the interval. This took his tally for the league season to date to a remarkable nine goals.
And owing to this production, the 29-year-old has etched his name yet further into the history books at the Spotify Camp Nou… As revealed by statistician Fran Martinez:
‘Players who scored 9+ goals in the first 7 matches of a season with Barcelona in all competitions in the last 60 years:
- [10] Messi 2012/13
- [09] Messi 2013/14
- [09] Messi 2011/12
- [09] Ronaldo 1996/97
- [09] RAPHINHA 2026/27′
Raphinha’s tally in fact now stands at 11 in all competitions, superior to even the numbers managed by the great Lionel Messi.
Conor Laird – GSFN
