Hugo Sánchez - 38 Touches, 38 Goals

One Touch Is All It Takes

Scoring a goal is often quoted as the hardest thing to do in football. But for some players, this skill simply comes naturally.

Case and point: Former Mexican striker Hugo Sánchez. 

(Credit: SoyFútbol)

Nicknamed 'Hugol', Sánchez was a revered goal scorer and is often recognised as one of the greatest Mexican players of all time, with 485 goals in 819 club appearances. 

Sánchez began his professional career at his childhood club, Club Universidad Nacional, commonly referred to as Pumas UNAM, after graduating from their academy. Between 1976 and 1981, Sánchez made 197 appearances, netting 102 goals, helping the Pumas win two league titles, their only Copa Interamericana and their first CONCACAF Champions' Cup. 

Following successes in his home country, Sánchez attracted the attention of multiple European sides, one being Atlético Madrid. The Mexican signed for Atleti on loan for the 1981/82 season, making 26 appearances and scoring 9 in all competitions. While the numbers weren't brilliant in his loan spell, Los Rojiblancos put their faith in the 23-year-old and signed him on a permanent deal the following season. 

(Credit: Pinterest)

Sánchez spent three permanent seasons with Atlético Madrid, making 125 appearances and scoring 70 goals. The striker's most successful season with Atleti was the 1984/85 campaign, where he netted 29 goals in 47 appearances, with 19 of the goals being in the league, earning him his first Pichichi Trophy as well as the Copa Del Rey and Supercopa de España. 

The 1984/85 season was Sánchez's final season with Atlético, as on the 15th of July 1985, he signed for their city rivals Real Madrid, in a deal shrouded by controversy. Atlético did not want to sell their frontman to a direct rival for fear of angering their supporters, so Sánchez temporarily moved back to Mexico City and 're-signed' with Pumas UNAM on the 4th of July, before completing his transfer to Real Madrid in a bank in Mexico. 

Sánchez immediately hit the ground running at The Bernabéu, winning a second consecutive Pichichi Trophy after scoring 22 league goals and securing his first La Liga title in addition to the UEFA Cup. Sánchez's imperious form continued as he helped Real Madrid to four consecutive league titles, three Supercopa de Españas and a Copa Del Rey during his time with Los Blancos. 

Sánchez won five Pichichi Trophy's between the 1984/85 and 1989/90 seasons, equalling Di Stéfano's record of four in a row set in the 1950s. Sánchez's most prolific goalscoring season was the 1989/90 campaign, where he scored 42 goals in 44 appearances, with 38 of those goals coming in 35 La Liga appearances. These goals won Sánchez his first and only European Golden Shoe and equalled the La Liga goal tally for a single season set by Telmo Zarra in 1951.

While the sheer number of goals Sánchez scored during the 1989/90 La Liga campaign is impressive, the way in which he scored them is even more so. Every league goal Sánchez scored that season was scored with his first touch. All of them. All 38. 

Scoring a goal with a singular touch often leads to the implication that the goal was probably either a tap-in or a poacher-style finish; therefore, one could suspect that the 38 goals scored in Sánchez's record-equalling campaign would be similar in the sense that they were mostly all simple finishes.

This was far from the case. Sánchez, throughout his career, was recognised for his varying goalscoring ability and his 1989/90 catalogue of goals showcased just why he had built that reputation. Naturally, some of the goals came through classic poacher-like positioning, such as his opening day goal vs Sporting Gijón, but Sánchez also scored a combination of first-time volleys, flying headers, overhead kicks, one-on-ones and exactly six direct free kicks, with only four of his goals being penalty kicks. 

Sánchez scored many iconic goals that season, such as his half-volley, top corner finish against Tenerife and his close-range improvised overhead kick a few months prior. But for me, his best goal that season came against Cádiz. Real Madrid were awarded a free kick on the left side of the box, with the set piece looking like a certain opportunity to whip a cross into a crowd of white shirts. Instead, Sánchez opted to take the opportunity for himself, and with a knuckleball strike, smashed the ball into the top corner of the keeper's side from, initially, what looked like an impossible angle. There could've been two keepers in the net and it still would've gone in. 

Sánchez demonstrated that he had all the fundamental needs to be a complete striker that season. His poacher-like knowledge, accompanied by his dead-ball specialities and athleticism, made him a dream teammate and nightmare opponent. 

Fast forward to the 4th of May 1990, the last game of the La Liga season. Real Madrid had already wrapped up the title and were looking to end the season in style against a mid-table Real Oviedo at home. Before the campaign began, Sánchez had reportedly set his sights on beating Telmo Zarra's 38-goal record and was furious when his Atlético replacement Baltazar had both beaten him to the Pichichi Trophy and bested his best La Liga goal tally of 34, after netting 35. However, due to a suspension in the penultimate game of the season, Sánchez was left with the task of scoring a hat trick to equal the record or scoring four and beating the record. 

Sánchez managed to score his first of the game by the 36th minute via a headed finish and was awarded a penalty that he subsequently dispatched right after the restart to complete his brace. His hat-trick completing goal came in the 64th minute, which was a true poacher's finish past a keeper stuck in no-man's land. 

With over twenty minutes of normal time remaining, the elusive 39-goal tally was seemingly in sight. These twenty minutes were filled with chances for Sánchez, with a last-minute one-on-one being the pick of the bunch. But agonisingly for Sánchez, he could not convert, ending his league season with 38 goals. If any of Sánchez's chances post the 64th minute were to have been converted, he would have rendered his first touch record as erroneous, as none were taken with a singular touch. 

Sánchez had almost beaten Zarra's goal tally but nullified his first touch record; regardless, he had written himself in La Liga and pub quiz folklore forever.

An incredible goal tally and an even more incredible method of conversion. I simply couldn't put it better than MARCA did on the 6th of May 1990: "Hugo is now a myth".