Real and Barça's record-breaking year

Posted Thursday, May 13, 2010 by theguardian.com

How many records are Barcelona and Real Madrid going to break this season?

Real and Barça's record-breaking year
Leo Messi: Six goals short of Hugo Sanchez.

"Real Madrid and Barcelona have 95 and 96 points respectively with a game to play in La Liga," writes Thomas Phillips. "Surely they're both on for some sort of record?"

In fact, they're on for a few. Both teams have already smashed the previous highest points tally in the Primera Division, set by Barça last season with 87. Pep Guardiola's side look ready to set a new best, so Real may have to settle for the unwanted title of the team scoring the most points without winning the league.

The pair will also set a remarkable standard of 197 points combined should they both win their final games. Obviously that's a La Liga record, but we can't find anything to beat it anywhere in the football world. It certainly beats the best we can muster in England – Reading and Sheffield United's combined 196 points in the Championship in 2005-06 – and that came over 46 games in a 24-team league rather than the 38 games and 20-team league that is the Spanish top flight. Rangers (85) and Celtic (103) combined for 188 points in the Scottish Premier League in 2001-02. Barry Town's 104-point romp to the Welsh title in 1997-98, when combined with runners-up Newtown, adds up to 182. Italy's best? A competitive 172 in 2006-07. If you can do any better, we'd be pleased to hear from you.

Real have already broken the record for most wins in a season, their 31 (presumably soon to be 32) beating the record of 28 set by themselves in 1987-88 and matched by the Barça of Ronaldo, Luis Figo and Hristo Stoichkov in 1996-97. Barcelona's solitary defeat this season is not a record, however. Athletic Bilbao in 1929-30 and Real Madrid in 1931-32 both went unbeaten in their league campaigns (though back then they consisted of just 18 matches).

Leo Messi is well short of a record-breaking season of scoring. His 32 was matched by Atlético Madrid's Diego Forlan last year, beaten by Ronaldo's 34 in 1996-97 and dwarfed by Hugo Sanchez's 38 (in 36 games) for Real in 1989-90 and Telmo Zarra's 38 in 30 games for Athletic Bilbao back in 1950-51.

Real will have to go some to set a new team high-scoring mark. The current ensemble have thus far mustered 101 six short of the Sanchez-inspired Los Blancos who scored 107 in 1989-90. And defensively they have both been a bit of a shambles, nowhere close to Deportivo's astonishing 18 conceded in 38 games in 1993-94 or the outright record of 15 set by Real in the 10-team top flight of 1931-32.

FOOTBALLERS TURNED POLITICIANS (2)

Last week we looked at the footballers who turned to politics having hung up their boots and as ever, we've a few more to add to the list.

Perhaps the most glaring oversight was Ahmed Ben Bella, midfielder for Marseille in 1939-40 and president of Algeria during the turbulent 1963-64 and 1964-65 seasons. He was deposed in a military coup in 1965 but remained a football fan, in 2002 lamenting that the modern game "focuses on defence at the expense of the attack".

Plenty of Irish politicians on both sides of the border have had sporting backgrounds. In the North there was Clifford Forsythe, a centre-forward for Derry City and Linfield player who became the Ulster Unionist MP for South Antrim for 17 years, and also Oscar Traynor, who was "Irish revolutionary and later minister for defence (among other portfolios) who played for Belfast Celtic in his youth," writes Oliver Farry. "Ireland's national competition for inter-league junior football is named after him."

There's also Grzegorz Lato, the top scorer at the 1974 World Cup with Poland, who was a senator in the country between 2001 and 2005.

TITLE ITINERANTS

With Bayern all but securing the Bundesliga title at the weekend, Arjen Robben has won league titles in four different European countries," says Kriz Walsh. "Aside from Mateja Kezman, have there been instances of other players winning titles in four different countries, or even five?"

Jiri Jarosik can match that achievement, writes Pavel Machala, having won titles with Sparta Prague, CSKA Moscow, Chelsea and Celtic, but Admir Pajic reckons he knows of a man who can go one better:

"It was not any player but the Brazilian ace Vitor Borba Ferreira, in some parts of the world known as Rivaldo," writes Admir. "He managed to win Brazil's Serie A with Palmeiras in 1994, Spain's La Liga with Barcelona twice, Serie A with Milan in 2004, the Greek league with Olympiakos on three occasions and the Uzbek League with Bunyodkor twice."

Which is all very well, were it not for the fact that the Brazilian, though still a Milan player, did not make a league appearance for the Rossoneri in the 2003-04 campaign.

KNOWLEDGE ARCHIVE

Carlos Vela has now scored four goals for Arsenal to add to his 10 goals in Spain and he's not 20 until March," wrote Warren Yates back in 2008. "I'm sure he's not even close, but who's the highest-scoring teenager in football?"

Well, not to put too fine a point on it Warren, you're damn right he's not close. He's not in the ball park, not even in the same solar system. We've had myriad suggestions from you, beloved readers, and we've dug out a few of our own.

Nicolas Mercado suggests Ronaldo, who bagged 63 goals as a teenager with Cruzeiro and PSV Eindhoven, and one more in the three matches he played for Barcelona before his 20th birthday. Jaime Alonso suggests Real Madrid's Raúl, who scored 49 goals in his first three seasons, having made his debut as a 17-year-old.

Closer to home, Theo Walcott has 19 with Arsenal, Southampton and England. Jermain Defoe scored 20 goals as a teenager and Wayne Rooney 40, but the young Michael Owen comfortably tops all his Premier League contemporaries with 53. Stuart Gardner reckons Jimmy Greaves is in with a shout of the English title. He is the youngest player to 100 goals, scoring No100 against Manchester City on 19 November 1960 at the age of 20 years and 261 days. Unless he had a prolific 262 days from his 20th birthday, it's safe to assume Greaves outstrips Owen. Unfortunately we're struggling to get an exact tally for his days as a teenager. Dixie Dean scored 62 goals in his first four seasons and was on his way to a further 36 in the following 1926-27 season when he turned 20 in January. As with Greaves, it is difficult to get an exact figure.

Two names stand head and shoulders above the melee, however. "Der Bomber" Gerd Müller had scored 122 goals for TSV 1861 Nördlingen and Bayern Munich by the time he turned 20, although even he pales into insignificance against the great Pele. "Even if you exclude friendly games, I can't imagine anyone scoring more teenage goals than Pele, who scored 191 league goals and two international goals for Brazil by April 1960, still six months before he reached 20," writes Stuart Goodacre. "And according to Fifa, which recognises friendly matches in its tallies, Pele scored 341 goals before turning 20."

And if friendly matches count then an honourable mention should go to Josef 'Pepi' Bican. Born in 1913, he had scored close to 250 goals by the end of the 1933-34 season, according to the RSSSF. Looks like Vela better get his skates on.