St. Louis City’s Navarro wants to be ‘among the greats’

Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.

Rafael Navarro is out to be one of the greats in MLS, having made a superb start to life at St. Louis City SC.

Navarro has netted 15 goals in MLS this term, with five of those coming in as many games for St. Louis.

He joined the club in a $12m deal from the Colorado Rapids at the end of MLS’ summer transfer window.

And Navarro has lofty ambitions as he aims to live up to a record-setting price tag.

“It means a lot to me, because I like to be among the greats. I work hard for that, you know?” Navarro told MLSsoccer.com.

“I know it happened because I’m doing my job well, so I enjoy it. I know that I can improve more.

“For sure, it’s an honour. I know what my responsibilities are, what my job is, what my game is. I think there’s pressure, but I’m used to playing with pressure. I played in Brazil.”

Navarro has come into a team that are flying high, with St. Louis City on a 17-game unbeaten run.

St. Louis City are also riding high towards the top of the Western Conference. Next up is a clash with the LA Galaxy.

“It’s been a very good experience for me,” Navarro said.

“I enjoy the league, which is getting better and better, and all the big-name players who have come here, like [Lionel] Messi, Robert Lewandowski, Antoine Griezmann, Thomas Muller. So MLS is a very good league.

“The culture, the pitches, the competition, they’re a little different. But I’ve been treated very well. I also like the city a lot. I like living here. I enjoy the life I live.”

— St Louis CITY SC (@stlCITYsc) October 9, 2026

St. Louis City SC – Rafael Navarro

Navarro is only the second player in MLS history to have scored at least 10 goals with one team and five with another in the same regular season, joining Mike Magee in his 2013 MVP season (15 with the Chicago Fire, six with the LA Galaxy).

Haak scored his first goal of the season for the Galaxy in their win over the Rapids last time out.

The goal came from a header, and two of the Galaxy’s last four goals have been headers after not having a header among any of their previous 23 regular-season goals prior to that.

MATCH PREDICTION: ST. LOUIS CITY WIN

St. Louis City have never lost to the Galaxy, winning three matches and drawing the other four.

They have scored multiple goals in each of the last six matches in the fixture and tallied three goals in each of the last three meetings.

The Galaxy defeated Colorado 3-2 before the international break, their second straight win by that scoreline after they also beat Minnesota United.

They had scored three goals just once in their first 26 regular-season matches of 2026 entering their current run.

St. Louis City, though, are on the third-longest single-season point streak in MLS history (after FC Dallas – 19 games in 2010, and the Columbus Crew – 18 games in 2004).

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