There was a time when La Liga regularly saw unbelievable goals and record after record. In the era of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, scoring 48 or 50 goals in a season was almost routine. As time passed, many assumed those fairy-tale days were gone for good. Confounding all the calculations, Barcelona’s Brazilian forward Raphinha is now knocking at the door of that impossible record.
The Selecao star has scored an extraordinary 12 goals in his first seven matches of this La Liga season. Those figures place him directly among the greatest of all time and recall the golden early days of Messi and Ronaldo. But there is another story behind this incredible festival of goals from Raphinha’s boots this season.
Raphinha was badly shaken by his omission from the 30-man shortlist for this year’s Ballon d’Or. Rather than getting into a war of words, however, he has been delivering the sharpest possible answer on the pitch, goal after goal. Playing in a new tactical position under Hansi Flick, Raphinha has become a terror for any defence in La Liga.
By the figures, Raphinha has moved past Lionel Messi into second place for goals in the first seven matches. In the 2014-15 season, the Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo scored 13 goals in his first seven matches in a Real Madrid shirt. In 2017-18, Messi scored 11 in his first seven for Barcelona. With 12 goals this season, Raphinha has gone past Messi.
Looking back through La Liga’s history, Lionel Messi scored a record 50 goals in the 2011-12 season. Ronaldo comes next, with 48 in 2014-15. After the two superstars left La Liga, tallies of 40 or 50 goals disappeared. Luis Suarez, with 40 goals, and the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Robert Lewandowski have tried, but none has touched the wild figures of that era.
Raphinha’s current form is offering fresh hope. Scoring at an average of 1.71 goals a match, the Brazilian could, by simple arithmetic, end the season on 65 goals if he keeps this up. Maintaining such consistency over a whole season is difficult, but his present form is reminding football lovers of those old golden days.
Based on a report by Goal.com.