Goal machine Andrej Kramarić on verge of club record

11 March 2019 – Two more goals over the weekend from Croatian international Andrej Kramarić for Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga has put him on the verge of a club record. 

The 27-year-old former Dinamo Zagreb and Rijeka striker grabbed a brace of goals, included an impressive back-heel, on Saturday in Hoffenheim’s 2-1 win over Nürnberg to put him one goal away from being the top goalscorer in the club’s history. 

Kramarić has scored 45 goals for the club in the Bundesliga in 104 matches. The only player ahead of him is Sejad Salihovic, who scored 46 goals in 171 matches up, 24sata writes.  

Kramarić has a chance to write his name into the club’s history books this weekend when Hoffenheim take on Stuttgart. So far in 2019, Kramarić has found the back of the net 6 times. Only Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski has scored more goals in the league. 

The Croatian is currently fifth on the top goalscorer list with 12 this season, five behind leader Lewandowski. In the Champions League he scored five goals in six appearances. 

When it comes to goals by Croatian players in the Top 5 leagues in Europe, only Alen Bokšić, Davor Šuker and Mario Mandžukić have scored more than Kramarić in a season. 

Bokšić scored 23 goals in the 1992/93 season for Marseille in the French league and 12 in the 2000/01 season for Middlesbrough in the English Premiership. Šuker went one better when he scored 24 goals in the 1993/94 season for Seville in Spain and also the same number for Real Madrid in the 1996/97 season. 

Mandžukić scored 18 goals in the 2013/14 season for Bayern Munich and 15 goals in 24 matches in the season earlier.

Six of Kramarić’s goals this season have come from the penalty spot. This season he has failed to miss one spot kick.