Vinicius Jr's UCL excellence: Real Madrid star among top scorers since 2021/22

Vinicius Jr cemented his place as Real Madrid's main man with a brace against Bayern Munich in the thrilling 2-2 draw in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final. The spotlight focused on Jude Bellingham pre-match ahead of facing his England captain Harry Kane but the 20-year-old endured a disappointing night.

Vini Jr, however, rescued Madrid with a late penalty after he opened the scoring in the first half with a composed finish following Toni Kroos' sensational pass. Vini Jr’s movement was sublime as he moved away from Kim Min-jae but he was fully appreciative of Kroos’ assist, stating: “It was a gift from Toni Kroos, he made it easy for me to score." The Brazilian's opener brought up his 20th goal of the season for the third consecutive season and it was also the third year in a row that the 23-year-old has scored in the semi-finals of the Champions League. Impressively, Vinicius has now scored an identical 10 goals in 27 appearances in the group stages and knockout stages of the Champions League across his career. 

How Vinicius Jr ranks amongst Champions League top scorers?

Vini Jr has been one of the star players in the most prestigious club tournament across the last three seasons. Since the start of the 2021/22 campaign, only four players have scored more goals than Vini Jr. As the graphic below illustrates, Kylian Mbappé, Robert Lewandowski, Erling Haaland and Vini Jr’s former Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema have scored more than the winger. 

Vini Jr has impressively scored 16 goals in 34 games, which ranks him level with Mohamed Salah and one more than his international and club colleague, Rodrygo. His goals against Bayern Munich added to his strikes against Real Madrid in the semi-finals in the previous two seasons. The fourth most valuable player in the world also famously scored the winner against Liverpool in the 2022 final and he’s firmly taken over from Cristiano Ronaldo as Madrid’s man for the big occasion. 

Vini Jr vs Cristiano Ronaldo: Champions League records compared

Cristiano Ronaldo is the top scorer in Champions League history with 140 goals (excluding qualifiers) and his record across his nine seasons at Madrid was sensational. Ronaldo scored 105 goals in 101 Champions League games in the famous white shirt at 1.04 goals per game. It would be almost impossible for any player to replicate Ronaldo’s record but Vini Jr’s second goal against Bayern was still his 20th in the competition - 0.37 goals per game. 

As the graphic above shows, Vini Jr has a better assists per game record (0.41) than Ronaldo (0.31). The Brazilian has registered 22 assists in 54 goals with Ronaldo providing 21. Due to the increase in transfer fees over the years, Vini Jr’s current market value of €150m is higher than Ronaldo’s record valuation during his time in Spain (€120m).