Konstantinos Mavropanos took his Championship tally to five goals in nine starts when he headed in a Jarrod Bowen corner to set West Ham United on their way at Lincoln City.

If the former Arsenal and Stuttgart powerhouse keeps up this form for the next 36 league matches, he would be on track to end 2025/26 with a staggering 25 goals to his name.

West Ham United’s number 15 is also the top-scoring centre-back across Europe’s top-ten ranked leagues in 2026/27. A tally of five sees Mavropanos move two clear of PSG captain Marquinhos. Rafal Augustyniak has four in the Polish Ekstraklasa for Legia Warsaw.

But what does Mavropanos need to do to end the campaign alongside the likes of Real Madrid legend Sergio Ramos and Inter Milan icon Marco Materazzi? Put simply, he needs to continue as he’s started.

Konstantinos Mavropanos closing in on Sergio Ramos’ tally at West Ham United

The aforementioned Materazzi, six years before he found himself on the wrong end of Zinedine Zidane’s shiny dome in the World Cup final, struck 12 Serie A goals for Perugia upon the turn of the century.

Sergio Ramos scored 11 La Liga goals for Real Madrid in 2019/20, although he had inherited penalty duties from the departed Cristiano Ronaldo by that point.

Martin Hinteregger [Eintracht Frankfurt], Daniel van Buyten [Marseille], Ezequiel Garay [Racing Santander] all came close to double figures, ultimately falling short.

In the top two divisions of English football, the likes of John Terry, Virgil van Dijk, Gary Cahill, Tomas Vermaelen, Aden Flint, Sean Morrison and Daniel Ayala have all enjoyed fairly-prolific campaigns at one point or another. Though Charlie Mulgrew, who scored ten for Blackburn Rovers in 2018/19, is the only one to reach a target Mavropanos is now well on-track to beat.

Six more, and he will beat replace Mulgrew as the top-scoring Championship centre-back in the 21st Century. Eight more, and he will leapfrog Sergio Ramos and Marco Materazzi at the top of the European charts.