Barcelona has found a “No. 9” where perhaps even the club itself didn’t expect one to exist. Raphinha is off to an explosive start in LaLiga, and at the “Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán,” he put on yet another show, scoring a hat trick to lead the Catalans’ 3-1 comeback victory over Sevilla.
And it wasn’t just any hat trick. The Brazilian captain achieved what’s known as a “perfect hat trick,” scoring once with his right foot, once with a header, and once with his left. This was a feat last achieved by a Barcelona player in LaLiga in May 2015, when Luis Suárez scored in all three different ways against Córdoba.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
4 – Raphinha is the second Barcelona player to score a perfect hat trick in LaLiga in the last 20 years.
The first was Luis Suárez against Córdoba in May 2015.
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In fact, the night had started in the worst possible way for Hansi Flick’s team, as Sevilla opened the scoring. The response, however, came from the player who has emerged as the undisputed star of the “Blaugrana” attack.
Andreas Christensen read Rafinha’s run and found him inside the box with a through ball. The Brazilian shook off his marker with a sharp feint with his left foot and fired a low shot with his right to make it 1-1.
After the break, it was Lamine Yamal’s turn to take center stage. The Spaniard sent a superb cross into the box, and Rafinha moved between the two center backs, meeting the ball with a header and sending it into the net to complete the comeback.
The third goal capped off a night of absolute individual dominance. Rafinha rounded the goalkeeper with his left foot and perfectly capped off his hat trick, while also scoring three goals in his second consecutive league match.
His numbers are now impressive. The 29-year-old has scored 12 goals in the first seven LaLiga matches and stands alone at the top of the scoring table. During the match, he surpassed two historic milestones that highlight the magnitude of his start to the season.
With his tenth goal, he became only the third player in the 21st century to reach double digits in goals after his team’s first seven games of a LaLiga season. The other two are Lionel Messi, with 10 goals in the 2011–12 season and 11 in 2017–18, and Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored 13 in the 2014/15 season.
When he reached 11 goals, Raphinha tied Messi’s 2017–18 record, with Cristiano Ronaldo remaining the only player to have scored more during that same period, with 13 goals in the 2014/15 season. And the Brazilian didn’t stop there, finishing the match with 12.
11 – Raphinha has scored 11 goals in LaLiga 2026/27.
AdvertisementOnly one player has scored more goals after his team’s first seven matches in a LaLiga season in the 21st century: Cristiano Ronaldo in 2014/15 (13).
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Lamine Yamal has also left his mark on Barcelona’s impressive start to the season. With his two assists against Sevilla, he reached 51 assists in 159 appearances for the Catalans across all competitions. At the same time, he became the youngest LaLiga player since at least the 2013–14 season to reach 50 assists, at the age of 19 years and 68 days, surpassing Vinícius Júnior’s previous record.
And all of this at a Barcelona team that is scoring at an impressive pace. The “Blaugrana” have scored 31 goals in the first seven matches of the 2026–27 LaLiga season, including own goals. Only one team in the history of the Spanish league has scored more at this point in the season: the 1940–41 Sevilla side, with 40.
Thirty years after Ronaldo Nazário and even more since Romário, Barcelona is seeing yet another Brazilian turn into a goal-scoring machine. Only this time, he’s not a classic center forward. Hansi Flick moved Raphinha closer to the box, and he’s responding with numbers that, until now, belonged almost exclusively to the all-time greats.
*photo source: AP
