Raphinha eyes place among Barcelona’s rare early-season scoring achievers

Raphinha is one match away from joining an exclusive group of Barcelona players who have scored in the opening four games of a season after making an outstanding start to the 2026-27 campaign.

The Brazil forward has scored five goals in his first three La Liga appearances, making him Barcelona’s leading scorer so far. Fermin Lopez has three, Lamine Yamal has two and Adeyemi has one.

Raphinha scored twice in Barcelona’s 5-0 win over Elche, found the net once in a 2-0 victory against Athletic Bilbao and added two more goals in the 5-0 defeat of Rayo Vallecano. Those performances mean he has scored in three successive league games.

A fourth consecutive scoring appearance would put Raphinha among a select group in Barcelona’s history. According to Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo, 13 players have scored in each of the club’s opening three matches, but only five have extended that run to four or five games.

Three players have scored in the first four matches of a season.

Laszlo Kubala did so in 1953-54, scoring eight goals against Real Sociedad, Jaen, Valladolid and Sporting. Cayetano Re achieved the feat in 1964-65, registering five goals against Las Palmas, Atletico, Deportivo and Murcia.

Cesc Fabregas is the most recent of the three, having scored four times in Barcelona’s opening four matches in 2011-12. His goals came against Villarreal, Real Sociedad, Osasuna and Valencia.

Only two players have scored in the first five consecutive matches of a Barcelona season. Cesar Rodriguez scored eight goals in 1950-51 against Real Sociedad, Atletico, Real Madrid, Murcia and Valencia.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic matched that sequence in 2009-10, scoring five times against Sporting, Getafe, Atletico, Racing and Malaga. He was also the first player to achieve the feat in his debut season in La Liga.

Since the start of the 21st century, Lionel Messi is the only Barcelona player to have scored in four successive competitive matches from the beginning of a campaign.

In 2011-12, Messi scored three goals across two Spanish Super Cup matches against Real Madrid. He then scored against Porto in the UEFA Super Cup before finding the net twice against Villarreal in Barcelona’s opening La Liga fixture.

The following season, Messi scored twice against Real Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup before scoring in league victories over Real Sociedad and Osasuna.

Raphinha’s five goals have helped Barcelona make a perfect start to their 2026-27 campaign. Against Elche, he and Fermin Lopez scored twice each, while Adeyemi completed the 5-0 victory.

Raphinha then scored again against Athletic Bilbao, with Fermin Lopez also on target in the 2-0 win.

Against Rayo Vallecano, Raphinha struck twice and Yamal opened his account for the season with two goals. Barcelona’s fifth goal came through an own goal by Leikhu, who inadvertently turned the ball into his own net.

Raphinha now needs to score in Barcelona’s next league match to match the four-game sequence achieved by Kubala, Cayetano Re and Fabregas. A further goal in the following fixture would place him alongside Cesar Rodriguez and Ibrahimovic in the club’s five-match scoring record.

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