100 games in La Liga - How does Neymar compare to Barcelona and Real Madrid legends?
Barcelona forward Neymar Jr. made his 100th La Liga appearance against Valencia on October 22nd 2016, after joining the Catalan club from Santos in 2013. The Brazilian has enjoyed a fantastic goal-scoring rate ever since he joined, which has only been amplified by the arrival of Luis Suarez to join Lionel Messi in making the famous MSN trio.
Neymar racked up 24 goals and 18 assists in La Liga in the 2015/16 season and is well on his way to replicate that form, having scored 4 goals and 4 assists for Barcelona in 6 La Liga games of the 2016/17 season so far.
Here’s how Neymar compares to other Real Madrid and Barcelona striking legends who have racked up 100 games for the club, and those in line to play 100 games soon.
#10 Samuel Eto’o – RCD Mallorca – 35 goals in first 100 games
The Cameroonian forward’s low scoring rate in his first 100 games in La Liga can be explained away by the fact that all 35 of those goals came for Mallorca. Eto’o left Real Madrid for Los Bermellones in the summer of 2000 and proceeded to score 48 times in 120 games for Mallorca.
However, once Eto’o joined Barcelona, he started scoring at a much faster rate, racking up 108 goals in 145 games, a rate of 0.75 goals per game for Barcelona, much better than the 0.35 goals per game he achieved in his first 100 La Liga games. Real Betis suffered the most from the Cameroonian's boot, as he scored 14 times against them, and 11 times against Real Madrid.
#9 Raul – Real Madrid – 44 goals in first 100 games
Real Madrid legend Raul’s low rank in this list is perhaps explained away by the fact that he made his debut at the tender age of 17 and not at his peak. Yet, a return of 9 goals in his first 28 games for Los Blancos in his first season (1994/95) at the club is very, very respectable.
The Spaniard finished his Real Madrid career with a staggering 228 goals in 550 games, at a rate of 0.41 goals per game, surprisingly lower than 0.44 gpg in his first 100 games for Madrid. However, Raul’s brilliance lay in that he scored against everyone, with Real Valladolid, Valencia and RDC Espanyol all feeling his strike power 17 times, while Barcelona conceded 15 times against the Madrid fan-favourite.