Published : 09 Sep 2026, 06:32 PM
Updated : 16 Sep 2026, 11:49 AM
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had already spent almost 90 minutes making Villarreal's defenders chase him when the opportunity arrived.
A misplaced pass around halfway sent the 37-year-old clear and Aubameyang still had enough pace left to race towards goal, slide his finish past Luiz Júnior and give Deportivo A Coruña a dramatic 3-2 victory.
Then came the familiar somersault.
The celebration may have belonged to an earlier Aubameyang, but very little about his start to life at Deportivo has suggested a player winding down his career.
Four La Liga games have brought four goals and two assists. Against Villarreal alone, he created Deportivo's first two equalisers before scoring the winner himself.
It has been enough to give Aubameyang a club record and Deportivo something they have spent much of the past decade desperately trying to rediscover: relevance at the top of Spanish football.
"Super Dépor", suddenly, is being talked about again.
Four Games, Four Goals at 37
Aubameyang’s arrival was anything but quiet.
When Deportivo unveiled him in July, the former Arsenal and Barcelona forward said he had come to score goals, provide assists and win matches.
So far, he has been unusually faithful to the script.
He scored on his league debut against Elche, then found the net against Málaga, Valencia and Villarreal.
No Deportivo player has previously scored in each of his first four La Liga appearances. Even Bebeto, whose goals helped usher in the original Super Dépor era, began with three in succession.
Aubameyang is now chasing another piece of club history. The record for scoring in seven consecutive league games is shared by Bebeto and Lucas Pérez.
Whether a 37-year-old can sustain this pace is another question, but his impact already extends beyond the numbers.
Coach Antonio Hidalgo has praised not only Aubameyang's talent but the intensity with which he trains and the effect his enthusiasm has on a squad containing players young enough to have grown up watching him.
His influence has even extended to recruitment. Adama Traoré spoke to his former Barcelona teammate before joining Deportivo and said Aubameyang had sold him on the attraction of the project.
This, increasingly, looks like rather more than one famous player squeezing a final season out of his career.
Why Deportivo?
That is perhaps the more intriguing question.
Aubameyang's journey has taken him through Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea, Marseille and Saudi Arabia. A move at 37 to a newly promoted club hardly looked like the obvious next stop.
But Deportivo are behaving unusually for a promoted side.
Backed by majority owner Abanca, they spent around €26 million rebuilding their squad over the summer, an outlay bettered in Spain only by Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid and Real Betis.
José María Giménez arrived from Atlético, Marc Casadó from Barcelona and Adama Traoré joined on a free transfer. Aubameyang himself cost only around €1.5 million from Marseille.
The ambition is therefore greater than simply surviving.
That was apparent at Villarreal, where Deportivo twice came from behind against a Champions League side before Aubameyang delivered the winner.
Four matches into the season, they remain unbeaten with eight points and sit fifth in La Liga.
For a club that spent years falling through Spanish football, looking at home in the top flight again is significant.
Is 'Super Dépor' Really Back?
The nickname carries far more weight than four good results in September.
The Deportivo sides of the 1990s and early 2000s were one of Spanish football's great disruptors.
Bebeto helped them become contenders before a team containing players such as Djalminha and Roy Makaay went further. Deportivo won their first La Liga title in 2000, lifted the Copa del Rey two years later and reached the Champions League semi-finals in 2004.
Then came the decline.
Financial problems accompanied three relegations from La Liga, in 2011, 2013 and finally 2018. Deportivo eventually sank as far as Spain's third tier before beginning the long climb back, with former Arsenal striker Lucas Pérez helping them escape it.
They finally returned to La Liga this summer.
Nobody sensible is comparing four matches in 2026 with the team that once challenged Europe's elite.
But the fact the comparison can even be made again says something about how quickly the mood has changed in A Coruña.
Deportivo are unbeaten, have already won away against Champions League opposition and have made the best start by a newly promoted La Liga side in 13 years.
Hidalgo is trying to keep expectations in check, warning that the table worth paying attention to is the one on the final day of the season rather than after four matches.
There are reasons for caution. Deportivo have conceded in every league game so far, while their squad has undergone significant change and Aubameyang cannot reasonably be expected to score every week.
But survival no longer feels like the only conversation around them.
