He is the little known striker who outshone Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi to have Sky Sports pundits purring.

But today Saul Berjon will sneak a quick look at his mobile in the away team’s changing room at the Camp Nou – to check what happened at the Amex.

Saul scored the goal of the week in the last round of La Liga fixtures before the international break with a fabulous, Rohan Ince-type volley from the edge of the box for Eibar.

It was his first ever goal in the top flight. Now he wants his cousin Adrian Colunga to open his own account in a new league – the Championship.

Saul’s strike against Levante was shown time and again on Sky. But he reckons his elder cousin at Albion is the better player.

And that has been the case since they kicked a ball about as kids in their home town of Oviedo.

Saul told The Argus: “Our mothers are sisters. We lived almost next door to each other. He is like my big brother.

“We speak every day. We always played out in the street as kids.

“We started out at the same club, CD Covadonga, but he got taken on by Sporting Gijon and I went to Real Oviedo.

“He’s a year-and-a-half older but he was two years ahead in the football age groups.”

The boys’ granddad Gumersindo had two seasons in the second division as a winger with Sporting Gijon.

Saul said: “My grandparents had a bar and we were always around there playing football on their patio. There were two trees we used as goalposts.

“Otherwise, there was a square just up the road where a lot of kids played.

“He didn’t really have a football hero but I remember when we were very young he always played in a Germany shirt with Lothar Matthaus’s name and number on the back.

The Argus: Santi Cazorla has signed a long-term contract with Arsenal

Colunga formed a potent duo with Santi Cazorla as a kid

“I have no idea why. Maybe someone gave it him as a present.

“But we were always playing football and he was phenomenal.”

Saul would watch his cousin play small-sided indoor football for Covadonga with another up and coming local boy.

He said: “When Adrian was young he played in the same team as Santi Cazorla.

“They were both at Covadonga and watching them play in the same team every weekend was incredible.

“They were seven, eight, nine years old. It was before Santi went to Oviedo. “ Saul’s stunning volley was very similar to the first goal with which Colunga was involved in England.

In Albion’s case, Colunga provided the chip in from the left wing and Ince let fly on the volley.

That game at Swindon, in which the new boy scored and won a penalty, looked the launchpad for great things for the man signed from Getafe.

He has shown nice touches since then but missed two good chances, at home to Charlton and Blackpool.

Saul said: “Adrian has told me good things about England. He is a very calm person and he says he has settled, he enjoys living there.

“He says the football is incredible in terms of the crowds and the facilities. He is very happy. I’m sure he will get a goal soon and after that a few will follow.

“He congratulated me on the goal against Levante and told me to get another at Barcelona. I’ll congratulate him when he gets his first in the league over there.”

Saul, who is under contract at Eibar until the summer of 2016, admits his dream has always been to play in the same team as his cousin. And he would like to try his luck over here.

“I played for Pajara Playas the season after him. He went to Las Palmas and then I went a year later. So I’ve always been a year behind him. He is the best player of the two of us. Of course he is.

“I’m in the first division now but he has had a lot of seasons in the first division. I’ve just arrived and I’ve got a lot to prove.

“He is a fabulous player. He is someone I greatly admire.”

  • Look out for Kike – that is the message from Adrian Colunga’s  sharp-shooting cousin, who spent the last two seasons playing alongside the Middlesbrough striker at Murcia. Saul warned: “Kike is a very good player with his back to goal. He is every competitive and he’s a goalscorer.”