FCBARCELONA.CAT

17.01.2009 11:42

Goal 5000 on the way

Jordi Clos

Barça have scored 4994 goals in their league history. Marco Aurelio, Zabalza, Quini and Amor have scored each thousandth goal for the club. Who will be next?

Barça’s extraordinary goalscoring rate this season (54 goals in 19 league fixtures) means it is not long before they will be celebrating goal 5000. The 5-0 win against Deportivo took them up to 4994, and now they are just 6 short of the 5000 mark. They have done that in 2439 games in 77 seasons of top flight football.

From 1929 to 2009

The first ever Barça goal in the league was scored by Manuel Parera in 1929, in the first game of the first season away to Racing Santander. FC Barcelona would take 21 years to make to a thousand. After three seasons without football due to the Civil War (1936-39) and with the dark days of the 1940s behind them, Aregntinian Marco Aurelio struck home goal number 1000.

The glory years were on the way, including the season of the Five Cups, and some tremendous achievements under Helenio Herrera. There were only 30 games in a season back then, so it took 14 years for goal 2000, scored by Zaballa in 1964. It would be a further 16 years, with only one league title in all that time, before the 3000th was scored by Quini.

In the 1990s it became more common for Barça to celebrate league titles, and Guillermo Amor, one the key members of the Dream Team, scored goal number 4000 in the 1995/96 season. Goal 5000 will come in 2009, and just 13 years after Amor and Barça made it to four thousand.

1000: Marco Aurelio

On October 22, 1950, during the Barça-Lleida match (6-1), Marco Aurelio scored goal 1000 for Barça in the league. After just 30 seconds, the Argentinian latched onto a pass from Seguer, beat a defender and struck home past the keeper. Marco Aurelio Di Pablo was a tireless inside left who donned the Barça colours from 1948 to 1951. He scored 30 goals in 70 games.

2000: Pedro Zaballa

Goal 2000 was scored by Pedro Zaballa in the Barça-Valencia game (4-0) of January 12, 1964. In the 54th minute, the Cantabrian made the most of a poor clearance by the keeper to confidently strike home. Barça had signed the man from Racing Santander in 1961. He scored 58 goals in 229 during his six years at Barça.

3000: Quini

One of the other great goalscorers to have represented the club, Enrique Castro ‘Quini’, scored goal 3000 on January 24, 1982. It came in the 59th minute of a game with Castellón at the Camp Nou (4-3), when the Asturian Wizard scored following a terrific through ball from Landaburu. Quini was a veritable predator of the area, and was the only Barça player ever to finish as top goalscorer twice, in 1980 and 1984.

4000: Amor

Goal 4000 was the work of a product of the youth system. It was March 9, 1996, when Guillermo Amor scored Barça’s only goal in a disappointing visit to Mestalla (4-1). The man from Benidorm made it 3-1 in minute 69, converting an exquisite cross from the left by Roger García. Amor has always been one of the finest players the Barça youth system ever produced, and has played the third highest number of games for the club (550), only topped by Migueli and Rexach.