La Liga's Top Scorers in 2021

We are now a few months into the 2021-22 season and it is becoming clearer who will be at the top of the goalscoring charts that come at the end of the calendar year.

La Liga 2020/21 ended with Atletico Madrid being crowned the Spanish champions while Barcelona and Real Madrid's performance did not live up to expectations.

The amazing job that

has done in charge of Atlético since taking charge midway through the 2011/12 season is no secret to anyone. Some of the techniques that he has implemented this season to fit his players’ qualities have worked extraordinarily well and are worthy of the praise they are receiving.

Quite surprisingly, no player of the Rojiblancos managed to fit among top 3 La Liga top scorers in 2020/21 season, and Lionel Messi, Karim Benzema, Gerard Moreno were La Liga top scorers of the season. Nonetheless, Atletico's Luis Suarez was a close 4th in the ranking.

Clubs such as Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, and Real Madrid all have an abundance of world-class players among their ranks. Even teams lower down in the rankings have some promising talent at their disposal.

La Liga's Top Scorers in 2021:

Keep reading to learn more about the players who have scored the most goals in the Spanish league during the 2020/21 season and up to the beginning of 2021/22 season.

Lionel Messi

• Full name: Lionel Andrés Messi

• Date of birth: 24 June 1987 (age 34)

• Place of birth: Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina

• Height: 1.69 m (5 ft 7 in)

• Position(s): Forward

The first on the list of the

La Liga's top scorers in 2021

is

who was awarded the Pichichi trophy for 2020/21 season as the La Liga's leading goal scorer of the season with 30 goals throughout 35 league games.

The Argentinian star has had five consecutive years holding the title. This was his 5th consecutive trophy, and his 8th in total, making him the record holder of the feat.

In addition, the extraordinary player stands 1st on the list of La Liga top scorers all-time by scoring 474 goals within 520 matches.

Lionel Messi and Telmo Zarra are the two players who hold the record of winning Pichichi a record 6 times. Messi equaled Telmo Zarra's record when he scored 36 League Goals in 34 Matches to become La Liga top scorer for a record 6th time.

Alfredo Di Stefano, Quini, and Hugo Sanchez have won Pichichi a total of 5 times. Ferenc Puskas has won it 4 times while Garate, Langara, and Cristiano Ronaldo have won it 3 times each.

Messi assisted 9 further goals during the season, meaning he was the 4th-top assist provider of the season. In addition to that, the legendary player is also the best – ever player in the ranking of the 

La Liga top assist

 providers of all – time by making 192 assists.

Regarding 2021 as a calendar year, Messi only took part in a part of 2020/21 La Liga season, where he played in 21 games, and scored 23 goals.

However, due to his departure to the French capital at the end of the season to represent

in a controversial transfer, his numbers will stay intact for the moment.

Just when it seemed as if it was only a matter of days or even hours before there would be a long-awaited announcement of free agent Lionel Messi rejoining Barcelona on a new deal, the club announced eight days before the start of a new league season that Messi would not be returning.

A short time after, the club distributed a Messi tribute video, cementing the once-unthinkable reality that Barcelona and Messi are going their separate ways after 21 years.

"Despite

and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today, this cannot happen because of Spanish La Liga regulations on player registration," Barcelona's statement read.

"As a result of this situation, Messi shall not be staying on at FC Barcelona. Both parties deeply regret that the wishes of the player and the club will ultimately not be fulfilled," the club announced.

Under La Liga rules that were introduced in 2013, there is a floating salary cap for all teams which limits player wages and acquisition costs to 70 percent of club revenues. But technically speaking, it has not been La Liga's fault, but FC Barcelona's failure to comply with La Liga regulations.

Messi called his unexpected departure from the club “the most difficult” moment of his career. “There were many tough moments, many losses, but in the end you always went back to training and to playing again. This is different. There is no going back,” Messi said.

Messi soon opened his account in the French top flight, having scored three goals in three Champions League appearances for PSG. The Argentinian had scored 23 La Liga goals for that severely dysfunctional Barcelona in the latter half of last season.

Karim Benzema

• Full name: Karim Mostafa Benzema

• Date of birth: 19 December 1987 (age 33)

• Place of birth: Lyon, France

• Height: 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)

• Position(s): Striker

Real Madrid's

was a second to the Argentinean legend with 23 goals in 2020/21 La Liga season. He is definitely among the La Liga's top scorers in 2021. The French striker appeared in 34 La Liga games throughout the season, scored 23 goals while only 1 of them was from the penalty spot.

Moreover, he provided 9 assists and stood 4th in the list of La Liga top assists providers of 2020/21. However, due to the departure of Lionel Messi from Spain, Benzema has become "the King" of the league: up to the 20th of October, 2021, Benzema is both La Liga's top scorer with 9 goals and the league's top assist provider with 7, only within 8 matches!

Furthermore, the 33 – year – old attacker is currently 10th player on the list of

La Liga top scorers

all-time with 201 goals in 391 appearances. With regard to his recent, excellent form, it is not far –fetched to see him ascend in the said ranking, although it seems impossible to imagine him beating Lionel Messi's record of 474 La Liga goals.

He seems to be ageing like a fine wine – he’s better than ever at the age of 33. He’s been the form of his career with nine goals and seven assists in eight La Liga appearances in 2021-22 so far, taking his total league goals tally to 33 goals in 2021.

Karim Benzema signed a contract extension with

which will keep him at the club until the summer of 2023. The 33-year-old, who returned to international football with France at Euro 2020, was due to be out of contract this summer but has now added another year to his deal.

Gerard Moreno

• Full name: Gerard Moreno Balagueró

• Date of birth: 7 April 1992 (age 29)

• Place of birth: Santa Perpètua, Spain

• Height: 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)

• Position(s): Striker

In the 3rd place, stands the Spanish

who netted 23 goals during 2020/21 La Liga season. However, of these 23 goals, 10 were scored from penalty kicks.

Moreno featured in 33 La Liga games throughout the season, and assisted 7 further goals, making the sum of his goal contributions the number of 30, which means he was directly involved in 50% of Villareal's total number of goals  in 2020/21 season.

The two time Zarra trophy winner, Spain international, and Europa League champion Gerard Moreno extended his contract at Villarreal until 2027.

The Zarra Trophy is a trophy awarded annually by the Spanish sports daily Marca to the Spanish domestic player with the highest goal total in La Liga. It is named after the former

striker Telmo Zarra. It was awarded for the first time in 2006 to

of Valencia.

Gerard’s value as a club servant, and as the goal-scoring face of the team that won Villarreal its first ever trophy, is something you really can’t accurately measure in just statistics.

Football fans, far too often, talk about their club’s ‘talisman’, but rarely if ever does the player they refer to truly imbue the historic levels of drive and belief that Gerard does here.

For many, he is already the greatest forward Villarreal have ever had, Pichichi awards and previous records don’t matter. Gerard is definitely one of the biggest stars in this golden age of Villarreal.

Luis Suarez

• Full name: Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz

• Date of birth: 24 January 1987 (age 34)

• Place of birth: Salto, Uruguay

• Height: 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)

• Position(s): Striker

Another star on the list of the La Liga's top scorers in 2021 is

. He was 2020/21 La Liga's 4th top scorer of the season with 21 goals.

His dramatic move from FC Barcelona to the Catalans' rival in the Spanish League, Atletico Madrid, in the summer of 2020 resulted in Barcelona paying a great cost: Atletico Madrid won the La Liga title while Blaugrana suffered the entire season for not having a prolific striker.

Luis Suarez said that he was axed by Barcelona during a blunt phone call with Ronald Koeman that lasted just 40 seconds.

“It’s not the way to say goodbye to a legend. Firstly he told me that I wasn’t in his plans,” Suarez said.

The former Liverpool star was dumped by Barca in summer 2020 before being sold to rivals Atletico Madrid.

The Uruguayan scored 21 goals for Rojiblancos throughout the 2020/21 season, and those 21 goals won 21 points for the Spanish champions. No other player managed to win more points for his club than Luis Suarez.

In addition to the quantity, the quality of his goals were of significant importance, especially in the final 2 games of the season when they would not have achieved the title unless they had won both of the games, which they actually did with Luis Suarez's match–winning goals.

He has proven that he is still one of the most dangerous strikers in the world by being among the 

La Liga's top scorers in 2021

to those in Barcelona who forced him to leave the club.

Moreover, the 34- year – old man is currently the 16th player in the ranking of the 

La Liga top scorers all-time

, having scored a total of 172 goals within 231 games, and he is probably going to improve his situation in the ranking with regard to his current form.

Although Luis Suárez was 33 years old at the time of his signing, Simeone was very aware of the finishing qualities of the Uruguayan striker.

However, knowing that Suárez has been playing at Barcelona for many years with a different style of play he needed to make adaptations to Atlético’s game model in order to ensure he would have a smooth transition to his new club.

In a recent interview, Simeone admitted that he needs to change certain aspects of their game to adapt to Suárez’s style, and they needed to have more possession in the attacking half and more players around him in order to help El Pistolero do what he does best, find space inside the box and put the ball in the net.

This can be evident by the change in their formation from the usual 4-4-2 that he has implemented for the most part throughout his time in charge of Atlético to a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 to have better coverage of the field and more players close to Suárez in the attacking half while still being safe during a transition moment.

This has led Atlético to have more ball possession and play more passes in the opponent’s half than what we have seen from them in the past.

Youssef En-Nesyri

• Full name: Youssef En-Nesyri

• Date of birth: 1 June 1997 (age 24)

• Place of birth: Fez, Morocco

• Height: 1.89 m (6 ft 2 in)

• Position(s): Striker

Then comes Sevilla's

, who scored 18 goals and bought himself a place on the list of the

La Liga's top scorers in 2021

.

The 24 – year – old Moroccan footballer has started the new season with a good form as well, where he has scored 3 goals and made 1 assist within 6 La Liga matches. En-Nesyri also caught many eyes with his stunning performance in the 2020/21 UEFA Champions League where he scored 6 goals in 8 appearances.

Sevilla signed En-Nesyri in January of 2020 to come in as a replacement for departing forwards

and Munas Dabbur.

In his first half-season with the Andalusian giants, he scored four goals in seven starts. Even though En-Nesyri is a central striker, his athleticism and pace make him a formidable opponent with runs down the flanks as he takes defenders out of position.

Alexander Isak

• Full name: Alexander Isak

• Date of birth: 21 September 1999 (age 22)

• Place of birth: Solna, Sweden

• Height: 1.92 m (6 ft 4 in)

• Position(s): Forward

stood 6th among La Liga top scorers with 17 goals in 2020/21 season. He played the pivotal role in Real Sociedad's finishing the league in the 5th place thus qualifying for the Europe League.

signed the 21-year-old from Borussia Dortmund in 2019 for a reported fee of £13.5million.

The Sweden striker had a decent first season for the Spanish side, but in the 2020/21 season, Isak's performance really started to attract attention. The Swede scored 17 goals in 34 games in the league.

Despite being young, Isak is showing that he is an intelligent striker that knows how to hurt the opponent’s defense. When mentioning an intelligent striker, we highlight his clever runs and positioning, as well as good attacking awareness.

He can be seen most of the time in between defenders. This is to have two opponents worried about him instead of one and to cut through the defense if he makes a run in behind. By being in between two defenders, he can exploit the defender’s blindside when making a run.

Not only are his physical attributes impressive, but Isak is also an intelligent striker who makes smart runs and is able to connect with his teammates well.

Iago Aspas

• Full name: Iago Aspas Juncal

• Date of birth: 1 August 1987 (age 34)

• Place of birth: Moaña, Spain

• Height: 1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)

• Position(s): Striker

Celta Vigo's

also recorded notable numbers during 2020/21 La Liga season, where with 14 goals, he was the 7th highest goal scorer of the season, and with 13 assists, his name was on the top of the list of La Liga top assists providers.

Aspas was directly involved in 27 of Real Sodiedad's total 55 goals during the competition (an involvement percentage of 49%).

The Spanish striker has amassed an impressive 83 goals since returning to the club in 2015 following a lackluster spell at Liverpool.

La Liga has been home to some of the highest-quality footballers in recent memory. A good example is Aspas who rejected €7m-per-year in China to help

battle relegation in 2019.

Jose Luis Morales, Rafa Mir, and

are the names to complete the top 10 with an equal number of goals at 13. Let’s look forward to their achievements in the new season.

Considering that Messi will no longer compete in La Liga goal-scoring awards. Everyone’s attention began to focus on the new faces. Up to this point, these are the brightest faces with the Pichichi title of the new season. They include:

• Erik Lamela (Sevilla): 3 goals in 120 minutes played.

• Vinícius Júnior (Real Madrid): 3 goals in 133 minutes played.

• Ángel Correa (Atlético Madrid): 3 goals in 150 minutes played.

• Carlos Soler (Valencia): 3 goals in 265 minutes played.

The league is still going on, and we are always ready for new surprises. Let’s see whether these names will keep their form until the end or not.

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