Sergio Aguero has been a long-term target for both Manchester City and Real Madrid for the past few months, ever since the Argentine announced his intentions to leave Atletico Madrid back in May. Manchester City see him as an ideal replacement for Carlos Tevez, and someone who is much less of a problem off the pitch.

Real Madrid on the other hand have been on the lookout for a new striker for quite some time, and Aguero’s track record against Barcelona, not to mention his overall technical abilities, would make him the ideal choice for Madrid.

And the hype surrounding the player isn’t undeserved – he has powerful stats to back him up.

AGÜERO’S UNIQUE SCORING RUN

Between March and April 2011, Sergio Agüero scored in seven consecutive league appearances. Stats show that he was the only player across the top five European leagues to achieve such a run.

Longest scoring runs in top five European leagues 2010-11

*At the time of the scoring runs

The 23 year-old Atlético Madrid forward scored consecutively against Villarreal, Almería, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Espanyol, Levante and Deportivo La Coruña.

Sergio Agüero’s 2010-11 Liga season

Sergio Agüero scored 20 goals last season in the Spanish league, his most prolific campaign. The highly-coveted striker was also one of Argentina’s rare shining lights at the 2011 Copa América, netting three goals in four appearances at a rate of one every 72 minutes.

Manchester City are reportedly the closest to signing Aguero, having officially begun talks with Atletico Madrid. However, as with the case of Alexis Sanchez, if a bigger club was to show their interest (Real Madrid) and Aguero’s goal was to win, and not just line his pockets (unlike a certain Samir Nasri), City might end up empty handed. Having said that, Madrid’s supposed pursuit of Neymar could allow City to bring Aguero to Manchester and do away with their reliance on Tevez once and for all.