Published On 5/24/2026
In a cruel irony, Kosovo striker Vedat Muriqi lived his best scoring season on a personal level, coinciding with one of the most frustrating moments for his team, Real Mallorca, which failed to avoid relegation to the second division.
Muriqui finished the 2025-2026 season in second place on the La Liga top scorers list, scoring 23 goals in 3,137 minutes in 37 matches, only two goals behind Frenchman Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid star.
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The goalscorer’s curse afflicts Muriqui
According to the Spanish newspaper “AS”, Muriqui (32 years old) scored more than half of his team’s goals in La Liga this season, amounting to 42 goals, with a percentage of 51.16%.
This percentage is the highest for a player in the five major leagues, and Muriqui surpasses brilliant strikers, most notably Mbappe, and Erling Haaland, the Manchester City striker.
Muriqui achieved this thanks to “extremely rare effectiveness and danger”, as he is the player who has scored the most in La Liga with his first shot in the match, as he did so ten times in the finished season.
The newspaper commented, “Muriqui’s best seasons were not enough to keep Mallorca remaining in La Liga for an additional season, the season in which he scored the most goals and played the most minutes.”
Muriqui joined a unique list of players who scored more than 20 goals in one season for a team that was eventually relegated to the second division.
Players who scored more than 20 goals during the season their teams were relegated from La Liga:
- Enrique Castro Quini: He scored 21 goals with Sporting Gijon in the 1975-1976 season.
- Fernando Morena: He scored 21 goals with Rayo Vallecano in the 1979-1980 season.
- Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: He scored 24 goals with Atletico Madrid in the 1999-2000 season.
- Vedat Muriqi: He scored 23 goals with Real Mallorca in the 2025-2026 season.
Muriqi’s future
Although Muriqui insisted on staying with Mallorca in the last winter transfer market, the team’s relegation to the second division may change everything.
The Turkish duo, Fenerbahce and Galatasaray, expressed serious interest in contracting with Muriqui, who confirmed only a few months ago that his future “is decided by the club first and then by me,” knowing that he is linked to Mallorca with a contract that extends until the summer of 2029.
Another hard blow
Muriqui suffered another severe blow in his best season, which was represented by his absence with his country’s national team from the 2026 World Cup finals, scheduled for the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The Kosovo national team was 90 minutes away from reaching the World Cup, before losing the final of the third track of the European playoff 0-1 to Türkiye.
