70 years since Kubala's impossible feat
This Thursday marks the 70th anniversary of one of many of Ladislau Kubala's outstanding feats. In a game between Barça and Sporting Gijón the striker scored no less than seven goals in a 9-0 win that took place on 10 February 1952.
Over the club's 120 year history, no player has ever matches Kubala's achievement in a league. In fact the only other player to score so many goals in a league fixture was Athletic Club's Agustín Sauto 'Bata' who did so in a game against Barça in February 1931 which the Basques won 12-1.
Other Barça records
If we look at other competitions we can see that the record for games in a single game for Barça is nine. Founder Joan Gamper managed the feat on three occasions: one in the Copa Macaya in 1901 in a 13-0 win at Franco-Español, once more in the same year and same competition in a 18-0 win over Tarragona and also in the Copa Barcelona in a win over Club X by 13 goals to nil. Josep Escolà scored nine goals in a friendly against Real Unión de Irún in 1935.
In the cup, Eulogio Martínez scored seven in a Copa Generalísimo match against Atlético Madrid in May 1957 that ended in a 8-1 victory for Barça.
More recently Leo Messi scored five times in the Champions League against Bayern Levekusen in a game form March 2012. The Argentine also scored four times in a match on six occasions, a feat also achieved by Luis Suárez on three occasions and by Patrick Kluivert, Neymar and Samuel Eto'o.