Footballers are creatures of habit.
Many of them are superstitious and everything must be in place for them to be able to perform to the best of their ability.
If a striker scored a goal after eating a certain pre-match meal, you can bet they will be revisiting that meal ahead of their next game.
It’s why we see certain patterns emerging in football. For example, one player might enjoy finding the back of the net against a certain club.
There have been many examples of that down the years like Luis Suarez vs Norwich, Wayne Rooney vs Arsenal and Lionel Messi vs well, just about anyone.
And now, after incredible research from Reddit user ‘kazcmot,’ we have discovered the three players that love finding the back of the net against each of the top 100 club in world football.
They included clubs that have been in the top-tier of Spain, Germany, England and Italy for at least two seasons in the last decade.
Let’s take a look at La Liga:
Yep, Messi loves scoring against pretty much every side in Spain, doesn’t he? The club he enjoys netting against more than most, though, is Sevilla with a ridiculous 37 strikes to his name. Cristiano Ronaldo has scored the most goals against a handful of clubs - including Barcelona where he bagged 18 El Clasico goals. Messi has managed 26 El Clasico goals and counting.
Bundesliga:
This one is dominated by Robert Lewandowski and the legendary Gerd Muller. Despite playing for Borussia Dortmund for four years, Dortmund have only conceded to Klaus Allofs (21) more than their former Polish striker.
Premier League:
This is certainly a more mixed bag with not one or two players dominating the chart. Rooney scored his first ever goal against Arsenal as a 16-year-old and bagged another 14 against them. Sergio Aguero just loves playing Chelsea with 15 against them, while Liverpool could never keep out the late West Ham and Tottenham striker Martin Peters. Liverpool’s Ian Rush loved a Merseyside derby and scored 19 against Everton. Everton legend Graham Sharpe and Alan Shearer both scored 10 against Manchester United, while Shearer loved a goal against former club Southampton and Tottenham.
Serie A:
Like the Premier League, there are plenty of different names featuring on the list - and there are some proper legends. Francesco Totti loved playing against Cagliari (14) and Parma (20), while hero Giuseppe Meazza did bits against Brescia (12 and Lazio (17). But Silvio Piola - who played during the 1930s and 1940s for the likes of Lazio and Juventus - scored 24 against AC Milan, 19 against Fiorentina and 19 against Napoli - three of Italy’s biggest sides.