Samuel Eto'o’s four goals on Saturday make him the top goalscorer in the Spanish league. But the Cameroonian still fell long short of the record for goals scored in the championship, which was set by Kubala.
After scoring four against Valladolid, Samuel Eto'o said "the most important thing was the win for
Barça and the work done by the whole team". This was the same thing said 56 years earlier when
another Barcelona legend, Ladislao Kubala, scored seven in a game against Sporting Gijón (9-0).
That still stands as the all-time record for one player in a league match.
Kubala’s record
The Hungarian received a standing ovation from the crowd on the terraces of
the old Les Corts stadium that day. Amazingly, the player himself had admitted earlier that he was
not sure if he was in good enough physical condition to even play the game. Laszi scored twice in
the first half (minutes 11 and 27) and then added five more in the second, two from the penalty
spot.
Manchón: "That doesn’t happen very much in your life"
The date was February 10, 1952, and is still remembered by one of the forwards that day,
Eduard Manchón, who scored one of the other two goals, and says that “scoring seven goals in
one game is very difficult, that doesn’t happen very much in your life, especially for
Barça.”
The former striker also commented on how it is only through teamwork that
the ball gets into a position from which a forward can score, and also said that he doubts the feat
will ever be repeated. “In modern football it’s hard enough just to score a hat-trick,
imagine getting seven!”
As for the four scored by Samuel Eto'o, Manchón also felt Leo Messi deserves a mention, for
"he almost has as much of the merit as Eto'o, because he gifted the ball to him on a plate".
To view this content you need the latest version of the Flash Player
Great scores
Ladislao Kubala is not the only player to have scored seven goals in a game for Barça. Eulogio
Martínez did the same in 1957, but that was in a Cup match against Atlético Madrid (8-1).
The overall record for goals in a game belongs to the club founder, Joan Gamper, who scored
nine goals in a game not just once, but three times. He scored nine twice in the Copa Macaya, in
1901 (Franco-Español, 0 – FC Barcelona, 13 and Tarragona, 0 –FC Barcelona, 18) and also
reached the same tally in the 1903 edition of the Copa Barcelona (FC Barcelona, 13 – Club X,
0).