Mohamed Salah’s goals have dried up since Liverpool slipped out of Europe with the league title virtually in the bag.
That one against Tottenham eight days ago, number four of five on a day of pure joy at Anfield, was his 28th Premier League goal of the season and yet his first for seven weeks.
It won’t trouble the champions. It might not bother Salah. Another title medal is on the way and a new contract is signed. But with only three to play, that dry spell might preserve a record that has stood more than 70 years.
George Robledo of Newcastle scored 33 league goals in 1951-52, the most in a top-flight season by an overseas-registered and foreign-born player.
There were four more games to a season back then, but even so, the record’s endurance is surprising when you think of the goals plundered by world-class forwards such as Thierry Henry and Luis Suarez since the Premier League went truly global.
Erling Haaland swept in with 36 in his first Manchester City season but is ruled out on a technicality because he was born in Leeds.
Mohamed Salah has 28 Premier League goals this season and is chasing a record
George Robledo was the first South American player to appear in an FA Cup final in 1951
He scored 33 league goals in 1951-52, the most in a top-flight season by an overseas-registered and foreign-born player
Robledo was born in Iquique, in northern Chile, 99 years ago, although brought up from the age of six in South Yorkshire.
His mother Elsie worked as a personal assistant to the wife of a wealthy British chemical engineer employed in the mining and sodium nitrate industries in the Atacama desert where she met his father, Aristides.
They married and had three sons. And the family were all aboard the Reina del Pacifico set to sail for Liverpool from Valparaiso when Aristides skipped from the ship on a pretence that he was going to buy cigarettes. He did not return.
They sailed without him and Elsie raised the boys, George, Ted and Walter in West Melton, a small town in the Dearne Valley, a region famed in the post-war era for its coal and a rich production line of footballing talent.
George worked in the pits and played for Barnsley in the old Division Two, where his exploits as an inside forward soon drew interest from bigger and wealthier clubs.
Newcastle won the fight to sign him because they were prepared to sign Ted. They paid £26,500 for the pair. George was always considered more naturally gifted, but his younger brother developed into a very good wing-half. Their story is no secret. You may have been, as I was, familiar with the name, its origins and its status as another pearl of trivia.
George was the first South American to appear in an FA Cup final in 1951. Ted was the second in 1952 when they both started the final against Arsenal, and George headed in the only goal. Ossie Ardiles and Ricardo Villa were the third and fourth, 30 years later.
The complete Robledo story though, as told by Spencer Vignes in Postcards from Santiago published by Biteback, reveals so much more. It retraces Ted’s mysterious disappearance at sea, suspected murdered at 42, and the late twist of a secret sibling. Moreover, there is a wonderful wealth of detail to savour, much of it retrieved from letters and postcards sent by George, who turned out to be just as prolific with a pen as he was with a ball.
Even Erling Haaland did not topple Robledo’s record with 36 goals as he was born in Leeds
If Salah missed out on the record then Robledo can stay in the conversation for a little longer
Robledo had a fascinating and tragic story, having sailed over from Chile, worked in a mine, lost his brother Ted at sea, won two FA Cups with Newcastle, and starred at the World Cup
He wrote to friends in Barnsley when he moved to Newcastle and he wrote to friends in Newcastle when he left them for Colo-Colo in Chile.
Colo-Colo were so inundated with requests for autographs they mass produced postcards bearing a photograph of George to simplify the process, but he didn’t simply scribble a signature, he wrote messages and if anyone wrote back, which they often did, he would write again.
Vignes discovered connections in South Yorkshire and Tyneside still cherishing bundles of hand-written correspondence from one of the few genuine stars of world football at the time.
Robledo was a product of English football as much as Chilean football, but he was in no doubt which country he would represent when international recognition became a possibility.
George won his first cap for Chile at the World Cup finals in 1950, playing in a group game against England, although he barely knew a word of Spanish and spoke English with a strong Yorkshire accent.
Once back in Chile, where he met his wife Gladys, he declined opportunities to return to clubs in England. He lived there until his death in 1989 at the age of 62.
It is only natural that his story fades as football seasons rattle by, rekindled only when his achievements are about to be surpassed.
So, in the nicest possible way, long may it live on. Salah can do without 33 goals and the legend of George Robledo can stay in the conversation for a little longer.
FIVE THINGS I LEARNED THIS WEEK
1. If Evanilson’s winner at Arsenal cannoned in off his elbow, Bournemouth will feel they are due the luck. They have had seven goals wiped out by VAR this season. It’s hardly surprising fans suspect officials find it easier to rule against ‘little old Bournemouth’.
Evanlison only played because an appeal overturned his red card from the Manchester United game, when the time taken to reach the wrong decision was the time added on to concede an equaliser in the 96th minute.
2. Eric Dier was surplus to requirements at Tottenham, not quick enough to cope in a high-line defence, but his third goal in four games sparked a Bayern Munich comeback at Leipzig. Results on Sunday mean he and Harry Kane are now Bundesliga champions. Life after Spurs, who knew?
Former Tottenham star Eric Dier played an important part to help Bayern Munich win the title
Dier shared a hug with Harry Kane after Bayer Leverkusen’s draw handed them a first trophy
Cardiff City got what they deserved after sacking Omer Riza, whose points-per-game ratio was enough to stay up
3. Cardiff won none of six under their first manager of the season and none of three under their third. In the 37 games in between, Omer Riza collected 41 points, a ratio which would have kept them up if sustained over 46 games. Riza picked them up when they were rock bottom, gave them a fighting chance and they sacked him and sank back to the bottom. Some clubs get what they deserve.
4. No play-offs for Reading but we should applaud their heroic efforts in crisis — and hopefully something more precious than promotion is afoot with the end of the Dai Yongge era.
5. Burton Albion completed another great escape in League One but for survival stories it is hard to beat Boston United, who have won nine of the last 12 under Graham Coughlan. From 12 points adrift in March, they go into the final game at Maidenhead on Monday with National League status secure.
