New French signing Kylian Mbappé broke a long-standing Real Madrid record, becoming the club's top scorer in his first season, surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo and Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Over the years, Real Madrid has produced many world-class strikers, but only a few have made a strong start to their first season.
We've gone back through Real Madrid's history and identified the six players who scored the most goals in their first season with the club. According to Planet Football, they are:
Hugo Sanchez
After joining Real Madrid in 1985 from local rivals Atletico Madrid, it didn't take long for the Mexican striker to settle into his new surroundings.
Sanchez scored 29 goals in 49 games during his first season, and became even more prolific in his subsequent years with the club.
In total, the striker scored 208 goals in seven seasons and is ranked the club's seventh-highest scorer in history.
Ronaldo Nazario
Real Madrid signed Ronaldo, nicknamed "The Phenomenon," in the summer of 2002 after injury-plagued years with Inter.
Having made just 24 appearances for the club in the three years prior to joining Real Madrid, fans at the time had reason to doubt the Brazilian's ability to maintain his fitness due to injury.
Ronaldo quickly dispelled these doubts by scoring 30 goals in 44 games during his first season at the Santiago Bernabéu.
Ronaldo has managed to stay largely injury-free during his first three years at the club, making 137 appearances in his first three seasons alone.
Ruud van Nistelrooy
After scoring 24 goals in his final season with Manchester United, Van Nistelrooy improved on his scoring tally during his first season with Real Madrid.
In fact, his first season in 2006-2007 was a memorable one, as he beat the likes of Diego Milito, Ronaldinho, and Diego Forlan to the La Liga top scorer award, scoring 25 league goals in 37 games.
The Dutchman also managed to score in seven consecutive La Liga matches, equaling the record held by Hugo Sanchez at the time. Lionel Messi has since broken this record, but it remains an impressive number.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Ronaldo's record of 33 goals is impressive, especially considering he only made 35 appearances during his first season with Real Madrid.
The Portuguese winger suffered an ankle injury in October 2009, and was sidelined for around seven weeks of the season.
However, this did not diminish his brilliance, as he scored at a rate of one goal every 88.3 minutes during the 2009-2010 season.
Unfortunately for Ronaldo, he finished his first season without a title, but this wasn't due to a lack of quality.
Ivan Zamorano
Since the 1992-93 season, Zamorano has held the record for the most goals scored in his first season with Real Madrid.
The Chilean striker was an unstoppable force in his prime and enjoyed his best goalscoring form with Real Madrid, yet records are made to be broken.
Kylian Mbappe
After a somewhat rocky start to his career with Real Madrid, the Frenchman has turned things around in recent months.
He won the Intercontinental Cup last December and is hoping to win the FIFA Club World Cup, the world's most prestigious tournament, in the summer, but his first season at the Bernabéu looks set to end in disappointment, devoid of any silverware.
His individual brilliance came in a poor and sluggish season with Los Blancos – Mbappé scored a hat-trick away to Barcelona, breaking Zamorano's record, before losing the match 4-3.
0 Comentários