It's only mid-September! Raphinha's hat-trick madness takes him to 11 goals already

Barcelona's goal factory has a new production line, and tonight it worked overtime: Raphinha walked off the Spotify Camp Nou pitch with the match ball under his arm.

Details: Raphinha scored a hat-trick for Barcelona in tonight's La Liga home match against Racing Santander, taking his tally to 11 goals in all competitions this season. As Fabrizio Romano notes, the Brazilian now has 14 goal contributions in total, and it is only mid-September.

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The numbers are becoming absurd. Raphinha came into the evening with six goals and three assists from five league matches, added a brace in the Champions League rout of Feyenoord last week, and tonight dismantled the newly promoted visitors almost single-handedly to move to nine league goals alone. This is no hot streak built on luck: it is the continuation of a 2025/26 season in which the Brazilian produced a monstrous 34 goals and 25 assists, numbers that put him in the Ballon d'Or conversation, where he finished fifth last year, and where he is surely climbing again. Under Hansi Flick, Barcelona are the perfect machine: six league wins from six, top of La Liga, and an attack where Yamal, Fermín and the surging Raphinha take turns demolishing opponents. For the Brazilian, who turns 30 this winter, this looks less like a peak and more like a declaration: the best season of his career may not have been his last great one.

It's worth noting that Raphinha needed just six matchdays to reach nine La Liga goals, a scoring rate only Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have bettered in the competition's modern era.

Reminder: Bring on the Ballon d'Or! Yamal matches Messi's impressive achievement.