Bata, the best goal per match scorer

Agustín Sauto Arana, better known as Bata (Barakaldo, 1908-Valle de Trápaga, 1986), has the best goal match average (with more than 50 matches played) in the history of Athletic Club. In the seven seasons (1929-1936) in which the striker played for the red-and-white club, he played 208 matches and scored 208 goals; exactly one goal per match, a figure only reached by the greatest strikers.

Bata also shares another great record with Ladislao Kubala: they are the only two players in the history of LaLiga who have scored seven goals in a single match. The player from Bilbao managed to do so in 1931, in what is still the biggest win in the history of LaLiga: Athletic Club 12 – FC Barcelona 1 . In that season, 1930-31, Athletic Club scored 73 goals in the 18 League matches, with an average of more than 4 goals per match. Bata scored 29 of them, which helped him to become the top scorer of the championship.

Zarra and Pichichi, on the podium

After Bata, Telmo Zarra has Athletic’s next best goal average: 0.95 goals per game. The top scorer in the club’s history is second in that particular ranking, with 335 goals scored in 354 matches played between 1942 and 1955.

The legendary Rafael Moreno Aranzadi ‘Pichichi’also on the podium, with 83 goals in 89 matches played as a lion between 1910 and 1921, giving him an average of 0.93 goals per game. Unamuno I (0.88) and Gorostiza (0.77) complete the top five in the red-and-white history.

Bata, Zarra y Pichichi / AC Museoa

From the current era, Aritz Aduriz (6th in the historical ranking of goals scored) also signs the best figures, with an average of 0.42 (172 goals in 407 games).