Barcelona winger on track to outperform Real Madrid star’s ‘Ballon d’Or worthy’ season | OneFootball

Raphinha is enjoying the best season of his career by some distance and is one of Barcelona’s most decisive players in attack. The numbers, in fact, put him as one of Europe’s best and a serious contender for the Ballon d’Or.

Any talk of the prestigious award distributed by France Football and UEFA at this point brings up the topic of Vinicius Jr,. who Real Madrid claim was snubbed of the award last year when Rodri was named the winner.

A comparison of Raphinha’s numbers this year to Vinicius’ last term, surprisingly, shows Raphinha’s dominance and its magnitude.

The best Brazilian footballer

Last season was Vinicius’ best year in a Real Madrid shirt and the calls for him to win the Ballon d’Or were based on his staggering numbers of 25 goals and 12 assists.

Unstoppable Raphinha. (Photo by Fran Santiago/Getty Images)

Just over halfway through the season and Raphinha already has 24 goals to his name. Added to that, he has provided 13 assists and is thus one assist above his compatriot’s numbers for last season.

When one takes into account that the Brazilian does not even take penalties regularly for Barcelona, it only adds perspective to how brutal his numbers are this season and how far ahead he is of Vinicius’ ‘Ballon d’Or year’.

With 24 goals so far, Raphinha is one goal away from Vinicius’ tally from last season while still having half the season to go. He has also crossed the Real Madrid star’s tallies of 23 goals in 2022-23 and 22 goals in 2021-22.

The Barcelona captain is also ahead of Vinicius in this season’s Pichichi race where he currently sits in third place on 13 goals. He is also ahead of him in the UEFA Champions League where he is the second top-scorer with eight to his name.