Raphinha challenges Messi: Barça’s new No 9 is already making history | OneFootball

Raphinha has found a new position and seems determined to make it his own. The Brazilian has reinvented himself as a centre-forward under Hansi Flick, and just a few matchdays later, he has already broken one of Lionel Messi’s records.

The 29-year-old attacker arrived at Barcelona in 2022 as a right winger. The emergence of Lamine Yamal later pushed him to switch flanks, and now, following the departures of Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres and the failed attempt to sign Julián Álvarez, he has taken on a new challenge: becoming the team’s No. 9.

And the results have been emphatic.

Raphinha surpasses Messi’s scoring start

The Brazilian scored a hat-trick against Sevilla to reach 12 goals in the first seven LaLiga matchdays, a tally that makes him the league’s top scorer.

With those 12 goals, Raphinha has surpassed Messi’s best start to a season in the competition. The Argentine had scored 11 goals in the first seven matchdays of the 2017-18 campaign.

In addition, the Brazilian’s tally matches the best scoring starts of four other players: Mariano Martín for Barcelona, Pruden for Atlético de Madrid, Campanal for Sevilla, and Quini for Sporting.

Only two players had started a league season with a higher total: Cristiano Ronaldo, with 13 goals in the first seven matchdays of 2014-15, and Echevarría, who reached 14 with Oviedo.

A new challenge after the international break

Raphinha will now face an even tougher target.

After the international break, Barcelona will host Getafe on October 10, and the Brazilian would need to score four goals to match the 16 Cristiano Ronaldo had after eight matchdays in that historic 2014-15 season.

It will not be easy, but his current numbers have turned any new scoring challenge into a real possibility.

He is chasing another Messi and Suárez record

Raphinha is also leaving behind two of the greatest goalscorers in Barcelona’s recent history.

The hat-trick against Sevilla was the third of his career for the blaugrana side. Until now, only Messi and Luis Suárez had managed to score three hat-tricks for Barça.

If Raphinha scores another hat-trick in the next match, he would set a run that neither Messi nor Suárez managed to achieve.

A streak of three consecutive matches with three goals has only been recorded in Spanish football by Isidro Lángara with Oviedo in the 1934-35 season and Telmo Zarra with Athletic Club in 1946-47.

Unusually sharp finishing

His numbers are not explained by the number of goals alone.

Counting LaLiga and the Champions League match against Feyenoord, Raphinha has taken 22 shots this season. Only one went off target, while two hit the post.

Of the 19 efforts that were on target, 14 ended up in the net, according to the data cited in the original report.

An extraordinary conversion rate that reflects the Brazilian’s change of role. Raphinha is no longer playing only as a winger arriving in the box: Flick has found in him a striker capable of finishing moves with the ruthlessness of an elite No. 9.

And while Barcelona were looking for a solution to fill the void left by Lewandowski and the move for Julián Álvarez failed to materialise, Raphinha has taken on the challenge and is delivering with goals.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.