Luis Suarez beats Cristiano Ronaldo's scoring record

Luis Suárez hit the ground running at Atlético Madrid following his move to the capital from Barcelona last summer. The Uruguay forward scored twice on his debut and has hit seven goals in his last four games for Diego Simeone’s side to move ahead of Leo Messi in the Pichichi running and beat a record set by Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid over 10 years ago.

Suárez outstrips Ronaldo and Haaland

Suárez’s scoring rate has made his debut season at Atlético the most prolific start to a season at a new club in the 21^st century. The evergreen 34-year-old has scored 16 times in 17 games since arriving from Camp Nou, beating Ronaldo’s mark set at the Bernabéu after the Portuguese moved from Manchester United to LaLiga and hit 15 in first 16 games for Madrid. Erling Haaland also achieved the same total in as many games for Borussia Dortmund after completing a transfer from Red Bull Salzburg.

Ronaldo went on to score 33 in 35 games in his first season at Real Madrid, a target Suárez will exceed if he maintains his current goals-per-game ratio.

The Uruguayan has also made a considerable improvement on his debut season in LaLiga at Barcelona in 2014-15: after 17 games Suárez had managed seven goals at Camp Nou and went on to total 25 in 43 overall. However, Suárez scored 16 in the league overall for Barcelona that season, the same number he has managed for Atlético at the halfway stage of this campaign, the Uruguayan having failed to get off the mark in any other competition for Simeone’s side thus far.

The best scoring starts to a campaign in the 21st century