Raphinha has started the 2026-27 season in stunning form, scoring in every appearance with eight goals across five games for Barcelona.
The Brazil international has stepped up at centre-forward after Barcelona lost Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres and failed to sign Julian Alvarez during the summer transfer window.
His explosive form has raised a wild but genuinely compelling question: could he threaten some of Lionel Messi’s most legendary individual records at the club?
Messi scored in 21 consecutive La Liga outings during the 2012-13 season, more than doubling Ronaldo Nazario’s previous best streak of 10, set back in 1996-97.
That run included the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner scoring against all 19 other clubs in La Liga, a feat that no player in European football history has come close to matching.
Raphinha would need 18 more consecutive scoring appearances to even begin threatening that record, which gives some sense of just how absurd it truly is.
On a more achievable front, Messi’s Barcelona-specific Champions League record of 14 goals in a single campaign, set in 2011-12, is a target Raphinha could realistically pursue this season.
Raphinha already has two Champions League goals to his name after bagging a brace in Barcelona’s 2026-27 opener, with seven more league phase games still to come before the knockout rounds begin.
Cristiano Ronaldo holds the all-time record for most goals in a Champions League season with 17 for Real Madrid in 2016-17, a mark many expect to be broken given the expanded competition format.
In terms of statistical rating, Raphinha currently holds a WhoScored average of 8.72 from the 2026-27 campaign so far, not far below Messi’s all-time best of 8.88 set in 2011-12.
To put that benchmark in perspective, only Lamine Yamal, with a rating of 8.23, managed to average above 8.00 across all of La Liga last season, and that still fell below Messi’s worst-ever average of 8.34.
Messi’s 50-goal La Liga season in 2011-12 remains the all-time record across Europe’s five major leagues and is perhaps the most untouchable individual achievement in the sport’s modern era.
Raphinha is currently leading Europe’s goalscoring charts with six goals in four league appearances, and extrapolating his 1.5 goals-per-game rate over 38 matches would theoretically produce 57 La Liga goals.
Messi also scored eight hat-tricks in La Liga during that same extraordinary season, a record that stands to this day and one Raphinha will need to get off the mark to even begin chasing.
With Anthony Gordon, Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez and Pedri providing support around him, Raphinha will have every chance of registering multiple hat-tricks as a centre-forward this season.
The record for most La Liga games scored in during a single season belongs to Messi’s 2012-13 campaign, when he found the net in 27 of Barcelona’s 38 league matches as they won 100 points.
With Raphinha having scored in all four league games so far, that particular record is not completely out of the realm of possibility, fitness permitting.
Finally and most ambitiously, Messi’s all-time record of 73 goals in all competitions during 2011-12 stands seven clear of Ferenc Deak and Gerd Muller’s tallies from the 1940s and 1970s respectively.
Raphinha’s current rate of eight goals in five games across all competitions would need to be sustained over roughly 50 matches to threaten it, but the Brazilian’s blistering start at least makes for a fascinating conversation.