Raphinha‘s remarkable start to the season is starting to change the conversation around his place in Barcelona history.
The Brazilian captain is not only leading the club’s attack or chasing the European Golden Boot, but he is also closing in on some of the greatest Brazilian goalscorers ever to wear the Barça shirt.
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The first major milestone is already within reach. Raphinha has scored 89 goals in 185 appearances for Barcelona, leaving him just five behind Ronaldinho’s 94 goals in 207 matches.
If his current scoring form continues, the 29-year-old could move through the club’s Brazilian goalscoring hierarchy at remarkable speed.
Ronaldinho is now Raphinha’s immediate target
Raphinha’s rise up the list has become particularly interesting because of the names immediately around him.
With 89 goals, he currently sits fifth among Barcelona’s highest-scoring Brazilians. Ronaldinho is the next player in his sights, with the former Barça icon having found the net 94 times during his spell at the club.
Raphinha has already scored 12 goals in La Liga this season. (Photo by Judit Cartiel/Getty Images)
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That means six goals would take Raphinha past Ronaldinho, although five would bring him level.
The next challenge from thereon would be considerably bigger, as Neymar and Evaristo are joint-second on 105 goals, putting them 16 goals ahead of Raphinha.
On current form, that gap does not look completely unreachable. Raphinha has already scored 12 times in La Liga this season and is currently second in the European Golden Boot race.
A sustained run of that kind could bring Neymar and Evaristo into range before the campaign ends.
Raphinha’s scoring rate is exceeding expectations
The reason these records are suddenly being discussed is the extraordinary pace at which Raphinha has started the campaign.
Raphinha can surpass Ronaldinho’s Barcelona tally in no time. (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images)
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His 12 La Liga goals have put him among Europe’s most prolific scorers, and maintaining that rate over an entire 38-game league season would produce an astonishing theoretical total of 66 goals.
That projection would comfortably surpass Lionel Messi‘s La Liga record of 50 goals, set during the 2011-12 season.
Naturally, the 66-goal figure is only a projection based on Raphinha maintaining his opening scoring rate. The demands of a full campaign make that extremely difficult, and it should not be treated as a realistic final tally.
Meanwhile, Rivaldo’s Barcelona record of 130 goals remains much further away, and Raphinha would need another 41 goals simply to draw level with the club’s greatest Brazilian scorer.
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Yet that is precisely what makes his current form so significant. Ronaldinho is already within touching distance, Neymar and Evaristo are becoming realistic medium-term targets, and Rivaldo is currently the ultimate benchmark.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
