Aubameyang, 37, matches a Deportivo record set in 1992

Three games, three goals. Aubameyang has matched a Deportivo feat unseen since Bebeto in 1992 — and lifted the promoted side to seventh in LaLiga 2026-27.

At 37, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is enjoying the sort of start no Deportivo La Coruña striker has managed since Bebeto stepped off the plane in 1992. Three matchdays into LaLiga 2026-27, he has three goals — against Elche, Málaga and Valencia — and they are not decoration. They account for five of the points Deportivo have collected on their return to Spain's top flight after eight years away. If you were hunting for the best value signing of the Spanish summer, he cost nothing and finishes with his left foot.

Three games, three Aubameyang goals: a Deportivo feat unseen since Bebeto

This is the kind of statistic that makes you look up from the table. Aubameyang has scored in each of his first three league games for Deportivo. Only three players in the club's history had done it before: Elícegui in 1941-42, Deportivo's first ever season in the top division; Rábade in 1950-51; and Bebeto in 1992-93, the year the legendary SuperDépor side was born. In other words, nobody for 34 years.

• Matchday 1 (17 August, Riazor): Deportivo 1-1 Elche. Aubameyang opened the scoring on 21 minutes after a long ball from Amatucci; Elche levelled on 76.
• Matchday 2 (24 August, La Rosaleda): Málaga 1-1 Deportivo. Aubameyang scored on 22 minutes before Málaga equalised from the penalty spot.
• Matchday 3 (30 August, Riazor): Deportivo 3-1 Valencia. Aubameyang struck on 17 minutes as Deportivo won a top-flight match for the first time in eight years.

The record he broke on day one

Aubameyang did not need to build up a body of work to get into the record books. His goal against Elche came at 37 years and 60 days old, and according to Spanish football statistician Pedro Martín that makes him the oldest player ever to score on his debut for a club in Primera División. The previous mark belonged to Movilla, who did it for Rayo Vallecano aged 36 years and 201 days. Nobody at 37 had managed it.

There was nothing accidental about the goal either. He took Amatucci's long pass, killed it inside the box with his right foot, and finished with his left — a striker reading the moment exactly right.

The Gabon international joined Deportivo on 16 July 2026, arriving on a free transfer from Olympique de Marseille on a deal that runs to June 2028. His LaLiga CV going into this season was slim — 11 goals in 18 appearances, almost all of them at Barcelona in 2021-22 — but the wider one is anything but: Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea, and a final Marseille campaign of 10 goals and six assists in 30 Ligue 1 games, plus three goals and four assists in eight Champions League outings.

Riazor won a top-flight game again after eight years

On 30 August, a crowd of 29,077 watched Deportivo shake off an eight-season wait. The 3-1 win over Valencia opened with a Tárrega own goal on 12 minutes, turned in from a Ximo Navarro corner. Five minutes later came Aubameyang's: seven seconds and four touches, a shift of the body to leave Jesús Vázquez behind, and a dinked finish with his weaker foot.

• 12' Tárrega, own goal (Ximo Navarro corner)
• 17' Aubameyang
• 25' Sadiq (Valencia)
• 59' Diakhaby, own goal
• Referee: Miguel Ángel Ortiz. Attendance: 29,077 at Riazor

Aubameyang, incidentally, now has eight career goals against Valencia in five meetings. Few opponents suit him better.

Aubameyang and the LaLiga 2026-27 Pichichi race: only Mbappé is ahead

Three matchdays is not much of a sample, yet the LaLiga 2026-27 scoring chart is already telling a good story: second place is shared by six players on three goals, and one of them is 37 and plays for a promoted side.

• Kylian Mbappé (Real Madrid): 4 goals
• Level on 3: Aubameyang (Deportivo), Yassir Zabiri (Racing Santander), Raphinha and Fermín López (Barcelona), Álex Baena (Atlético) and Roberto Fernández (Espanyol)

The other side of the 3-1: Valencia with one point from nine

While Deportivo settle into the upper half — seventh, five points, unbeaten, five scored and three conceded — Valencia left Riazor 17th, with a single point from a possible nine and an atmosphere that had already soured before a ball was kicked. Chants against head coach Carlos Corberán were audible at the squad presentation, and the fixture list offers no mercy: Barcelona visit Mestalla next.

What to watch on LaLiga matchday four

Deportivo travel to Villarreal on Saturday 5 September at the Estadio de la Cerámica, a considerably stiffer test than the first three. The question being asked across Galicia is whether Aubameyang can become the first player in the club's history to score in each of his first four league games.

This is exactly the sort of weekend that gets better when something is riding on it among friends. A promoted side in form, a big club in trouble, and a 37-year-old scoring every week: not many combinations scramble a prediction quite so thoroughly. If you fancy testing yourself against your group, quiniPrats lets you set up a private prediction league with friends in a couple of minutes — invite whoever you like and see who reads Deportivo right before the surprises run out. No rush: the season has only just started.