La Liga’s top goalscorer seven times in his career, Argentine Lionel Messi has just garnered his latest award in the final stage of the 2019/20 campaign.
Messi has again won the Pichichi award, given to the top scorer in La Liga, for the fourth time in a row and the seventh time in his career overall.
The irrepresible Barcelona star amassed a total of 25 goals in 33 appearances for the Blaugrana, with Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema second with 21 in 37 appearances.
Unfortunately for Barca, Messi’s 45 goal contributions, including his record-breaking 21 assists, were unable to secure the league title as Barca surrendered the championship to Real Madrid who won LaLiga after two years of domination by the Catalonians.
In Barca’s final game of the season, the 33-year-old with true Messi panache and flair scored twoce in a 5-0 drubbing of Alaves, with two typically cool finishes inside the box, which took his final tally to 25.
Real’s Benzema was already lagging well behind in the rankings – despite being optimistic after Saturday night’s win over Villareal that he would beat Messi to the Pinichi award this year – and failed to score at all against Leganes as Madrid drew 2-2, which clearly confirmed Messi’s status again as the league’s best goalscorer.
Messi equalled the league record the preceding season for the most top goalscorer awards, previously held outright by Athletic Bilbao’s Telmo Zarra. But his seventh has seen him break yet another goalscoring record for Barca.
The last time someone apart from Messi won the Pichichi award was in the 2015/16 campaign when Barca team-mate Luis Suarez struck 40 times in La Liga.
Two years prior to that, it was Messi’s perennial nemesis Cristiano Ronaldo who claimed the award, after scoring 48 times in 2014/15 and 31 times in 2013/14.
Messi could potentially break yet another record next season, as whilst he has now secured his fourth top Pichichi goalscorer award in a row in 2019/20, that puts him on par with Hugo Sanchez who won four between 1985 and 1988 and Alfredo Di Stefano who won four himself between 1956 and 1959. A Pichichi award in 2020/21 would isolate and set apart Messi as the outright best in that category, too.
The Barcelona talisman currently leads the way as La Liga’s all time top goalscorer, having netted 444 times in 485 appearances, with Ronaldo some way in behind in second on 311.
That’s the true GOAT for you!