Few players in LaLiga history can say they have matched the start to a season that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo once produced. Raphinha has now earned a place in that conversation.
The Brazilian winger is having a standout 2026-27 campaign, and his latest performance at home has put him alongside two of the greatest scorers the league has ever seen.
Raphinha scored twice in the first half as Barcelona took a commanding 4-0 lead over Alaves before halftime, in Matchday 11 of LaLiga. His brace allowed him to write his name in the history books of Spanish football next to the Argentine and the Portuguese.
With that brace, the winger reached 15 goals in the first 11 matches of the 2026-27 season, a feat that only two players had achieved over the last 75 seasons, according to the statistician on X, MisterChip.
Raphinha celebrates a goal vs Deportivo Alaves. (Getty Images)
Ronaldo set the standard in 2014-15, when he scored 18 goals for Real Madrid in the first 11 games, a pace that left every defense in the league scrambling. Two seasons earlier, Messi had reached 15 for Barcelona in 2012-13, in a campaign that showed how unstoppable the Argentine was at his peak. Now Raphinha has matched the Blaugrana icon’s tally and sits behind only the Portuguese, a place in LaLiga history that few expected him to reach.
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Raphinha surpasses Lewandowski and Ballesta
Raphinha’s first goal of the afternoon, in the 23rd minute, had already taken him to 14 in 11 games. That figure put him level with three other players on the list of 14 or more goals in the first 11 matchdays of a LaLiga season over the last 50 seasons: Robert Lewandowski, who did it with Barcelona in 2024-25, Messi himself in 2011-12, and Salva Ballesta, who reached it with Racing in 1999-00.
His second goal, in the 41st minute, took him to 15 and left all three behind. The Blaugrana winger is now ahead of his former teammate Lewandowski, the Spanish striker Ballesta, and the 2011-12 version of Messi, and only the Argentine’s 2012-13 campaign (15) and Ronaldo’s 2014-15 season (18) remain at or above his mark.
Raphinha has turned Barcelona’s attack into his own personal stage this season, and the record books are starting to take notice. His first 11 matchdays will be remembered alongside those of two legends, and the Brazilian has made it clear that his name belongs in the conversation about the best starts LaLiga has ever seen.
