Barcelona have already found their ideal No. 9 after five Raphinha appearances

The search for Robert Lewandowski’s successor is apparently over—or at least the newspaper version of it is. Barcelona failed to sign Julián Álvarez, but five matches have been enough for “Mundo Deportivo” to declare that the desired No. 9 was already inside the squad.

Raphinha has certainly provided more than empty talking points. The Brazilian has scored eight goals and registered one assist in Barcelona’s opening five games. His latest brace came in the 5-1 victory over Feyenoord, which gave Hansi Flick’s side a convincing start to their Champions League campaign.

The player is doing his job. The noise around Barcelona simply needed very little time to turn an excellent run of form into a permanent solution to the club’s attacking plans.

EIGHT GOALS AND AN INSTANT CORONATION

Raphinha’s numbers are impressive without any extra decoration. According to figures published by “Mundo Deportivo”, he has scored eight times from 13 attempts. Twelve were on target, while the remaining shot hit the post. Against Feyenoord, he opened the scoring after only two minutes and added his second after the interval to make it 3-0.

Flick has moved him into more central areas this season. Raphinha is not a traditional centre-forward, but his movement, pressing and sharp finishing have made the experiment highly effective. He can start through the middle, interchange with Lamine Yamal and still attack the spaces he previously entered from the wing.

That deserves praise. The premature part is treating five performances as the final answer to Barcelona’s long-term search for a striker.

Only recently, the club were trying to bring Álvarez from Atlético Madrid. That move did not happen. Now the failed pursuit can be neatly repackaged as part of a superior plan: Barcelona supposedly had their elite No. 9 all along and merely needed five matches to notice him.

Gabriel Jesus has also arrived and scored his first Barcelona goal against Feyenoord. Yet the media have already handed the central role to Raphinha. There is genuine competition in the squad, but the competition to produce the quickest grand conclusion may be even stronger.

A START NOT SEEN SINCE KOCSIS

Eight goals in the opening five official matches represent Barcelona’s best scoring start in almost seven decades. According to statistics from journalist Oriol Jové, the last player to begin a season more prolifically was Sándor Kocsis, who scored nine times in the first five games of the 1958/59 campaign.

Raphinha has also moved within two goals of the combined total from his first two seasons at Barcelona. His personal best remains the 34 goals he scored in 2024/25. On current form, challenging that figure is a reasonable ambition, although the season contains considerably more than five fixtures.

His explosive start has also been followed by renewed contract discussion. Raphinha’s current deal runs until June 2028, but sporting director Deco has confirmed that Barcelona want him to stay longer and intend to speak to him. Reports about a possible Saudi Arabian transfer were still following the player not long ago. A few goals later, the conversation has moved to a new contract and the discovery of the striker Barcelona had spent the summer trying to find elsewhere.

None of that is Raphinha’s fault. He is scoring, pressing and making Flick’s tactical decision work. The exaggeration belongs to the surrounding narrative, which is once again trying to settle a season-long debate before September is over.

Raphinha may prove to be an excellent long-term answer. He already looks capable of filling the role. Five games, however, are evidence of outstanding form—not an entire season delivered in advance.