Raphinha’s fast start at Barcelona places seven Lionel Messi marks in reach this season

Raphinha has opened the 2026-27 campaign for FC Barcelona by scoring 15 goals in 10 LaLiga appearances and adding two goals in the UEFA Champions League, bringing him close to several club and competition records held by Lionel Messi as of 2 November 2026.

The Brazil international has been deployed as a No. 9 after Barcelona lost Ferran Torres and Robert Lewandowski and failed to sign Julian Alvarez in the summer, a positional change that has coincided with his early scoring surge; Khel Now has assembled seven Messi records that Raphinha could potentially challenge this season, ranging from consecutive-game scoring runs to single-season tallies.

One target is Messi’s LaLiga run of scoring in 21 consecutive games during 2012-13, a mark that surpassed Ronaldo Nazario’s 10-game sequence from 1996-97; Raphinha came close to a longer run this season but his streak was halted after he conceded a penalty to Lamine Yamal against Levante, despite providing two assists in that match, and he subsequently scored in the defeat to Real Madrid followed by a brace against Alaves, taking his current run to two straight games — "It will only take 20 more to surpass Messi’s record."

In the Champions League context, Messi ranks second on the competition’s all-time goalscoring list and his best single-season return is 14 goals in 2011-12, a total that sits joint-seventh in tournament history; Raphinha netted twice in Barcelona’s 2026-27 group opener against Feyenoord, was sidelined by injury during the win over Galatasaray, did not score in the 4-2 loss to PSG, and currently has two goals from two outings with five league-phase games remaining before the knockout stages.

Statistical ratings provide another benchmark: Messi finished each season between 2009-10 and 2020-21 with a WhoScored average above 8.00, peaking at 8.88 in 2011-12; Raphinha’s WhoScored rating for 2026-27 stands at 8.50, and the outlet lists the highest-rated players this LaLiga season as 8.53 – Lamine Yamal, 8.50 – Raphinha, 8.02 – Kylian Mbappé, 7.64 – Jude Bellingham and 7.48 – Arda Güler, leaving Raphinha needing to sustain or improve that mark over the next 27 matches to approach Messi’s single-season high.

Messi’s 50-goal LaLiga season in 2011-12 remains the benchmark for a European top-five league campaign; Raphinha leads Europe’s current goalscoring charts with 15 goals in 10 league appearances and, if he maintained his present average of 1.5 goals per game across a 38-match LaLiga season, that rate projects to 57 goals over 38 fixtures.

Messi’s eight LaLiga hat-tricks in 2011-12 — a total later matched by Cristiano Ronaldo in 2014-15 — is another mark on the list; Raphinha has already recorded two hat-tricks this term, against Racing Santander and Sevilla, after 11 league matches and would need six more to equal Messi’s single-season hat-trick tally. He has scored in eight of his ten LaLiga appearances so far, and to tie the cited figure of 27 goals in 38 LaLiga games would require him to find the net in 19 of Barcelona’s remaining 27 league outings.

Across all competitions Messi scored 73 goals in 2011-12; Raphinha has 17 goals in 12 appearances this season and is averaging 1.42 goals per appearance. Maintaining that scoring rate over roughly 52 appearances, while preserving fitness and with Barcelona progressing deep into the Champions League, is the pathway the article identifies for Raphinha to reach Messi’s total across a single season.