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The 2014/15 season in football was yet another breathtaking, roller-coaster ride filled with drama and action. The season saw many old records tumble and new ones put up in their place. Even on the final day of the season a record was set as Barcelona were crowned European Champions and became the first club to have won the treble twice.Out of numerous small and big records that were broken across Europe’s top five leagues – the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 – here are ten notable records that were set in the recently concluded season.Honourable Mentions: Sevilla achieves a record 76 points without finishing in Champions League spotsJohn Terry becomes highest scoring defender in the Premier League – 39 goalsArsenal breaks record for most FA Cup titles – 12
#1 All-time top scorer in La Liga history: Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi has been breaking records for fun throughout his career and last season he broke another long-standing record. During Barcelona’s game against Sevilla on November 22, Messi scored a hat-trick and his second goal of the lot took him past Telmo Zarra to become La Liga’s all-time top scorer.
Zarra scored 251 goals in 278 appearances with a goal ratio of 0.90. And when Messi broke Zarra’s record which stood for over six decades, he had played more league games than Zarra had at the same stage. Nevertheless, Messi went on to widen the gap further and he now has 286 league goals in 315 matches, which also gives him goals to matches ratio of 0.90.
As things stand there is no player who can surpass Messi’s record and it is unlikely that it will be broken in the near future. Even though Cristiano Ronaldo is sixth in the list of all-time top scorers in La Liga and scores at a rate of more than one goal per game, he may not pass Messi as the Argentine is younger to him and also because Messi’s goals tally will also keep increasing with Ronaldo’s.
| # | Player | Goals | Appearances | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lionel Messi | 286 | 315 | 0.90 |
| 2 | Telmo Zarra | 251 | 278 | 0.90 |
| 3 | Hugo Sanchez | 234 | 347 | 0.67 |
| 4 | Raul | 228 | 550 | 0.41 |
| 5 | Alfredo di Stefano | 227 | 329 | 0.69 |
| 6 | Cristiano Ronaldo | 225 | 200 | 1.12 |
| 7 | Cesar Rodriguez | 223 | 353 | 0.63 |
| 8 | Quini | 219 | 448 | 0.49 |
| 9 | Pahino | 210 | 278 | 0.76 |
| 10 | Edmundo Suarez | 195 | 231 | 0.84 |
#2 Most EPL Golden Glove awards: Joe Hart
On the final matchday of the 2014/15 season, Joe Hart became the first goalkeeper to win the Premier League Golden Glove award four times after he kept a clean sheet against Southampton. In the process, he surpassed Simon Mignolet who was leading the race at that point due to fewer games played.
Mignolet failed to keep a clean sheet in Liverpool’s last game against Stoke City and an untimely and unfortunate injury to Fraser Foster helped Hart’s cause. Nevertheless, the England’s first choice keeper surpassed the record previously held jointly by Pepe Reina and Petr Cech – who had both won thrice and are unlikely to win it again.
Along with Pepe Reina, Hart also holds the record for consecutive awards with three in a row.
Player | Golden Glove awards | Club |
|---|---|---|
Joe Hart | 4 | Manchester City |
Pepe Reina | 3 | Liverpool |
Petr Cech | 3 | Chelsea |
Edwin van der Sar | 1 | Manchester United |
Wojciech Szczesny | 1 | Arsenal |
#3 World\'s most expensive defender: David Luiz
When rumours of Paris Saint-Germain signing David Luiz for £50m surfaced, it seemed like a joke to many as the Brazilian had done nothing so spectacular to warrant such a hefty transfer fee. Luiz was a backup to Gary Cahill and John Terry at Chelsea and he was often criticized for his vulnerability as a defender.
But Jose Mourinho and Chelsea pulled a rabbit out of their hat and somehow managed to convince PSG to part with £50m and sign Luiz in 2014. In doing so, Luiz became the most expensive defender in the world, surpassing the transfer fee paid by his new employers for Thiago Silva, who is much more highly rated than his compatriot.
The likes of Carlos Tevez, Zinedine Zidane, Mesut Ozil, James Rodriguez, Sergio Aguero, Juan Mata and many more moved for smaller fees (in million pounds) than PSG paid for Luiz! This gives you an idea of how ridiculous Luiz’s fee was.
# | Player | Transfer Fee | Moving To | Moving From |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Luiz | £50m | PSG | Chelsea |
| 2 | Thiago Silva | £35m | PSG | AC Milan |
| 3 | Eliaquim Mangala | £32m | Manchester City | FC Porto |
| 4 | Marquinhos | £30.1m | PSG | AS Roma |
| 5 | Rio Ferdinand | £30m | Manchester United | Leeds United |
Luke Shaw | £30m | Manchester United | Southampton | |
| 7 | Dani Alves | £28.5m | FC Barcelona | Sevilla |
| 8 | Fabio Coentrao | £27m | Real Madrid | SL Benfica |
| 9 | Mehdi Benatia | £23.9m | FC Bayern Munich | AS Roma |
| 10 | Lilian Thuram | £22m | Juventus | Parma |
#4 First ever French team to complete a domestic quadruple: Paris Saint-Germain
PSG were hit with a transfer restriction and spent their entire budget for the season on David Luiz, but nevertheless they became the first French team to complete a domestic treble of Ligue 1, Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue. Including the Trophee des Champions at the start of the season they won four domestic titles during the season.
The achievement is significant, but no club in France can match the financial prowess or the quality of PSG. But the French Champions were still given a tough run in their quest to defend the league title as Lyon were ahead of the side from the French capital for a majority of the season.
But a late slip-up from Lyon along with a late resurgence from PSG meant that the title was staying in Paris.
PSG started their season by winning the Trophee des Champions after defeating Guingamp. Later they won the Coupe de la Ligue in April by trashing Bastia in the final and finally the Coupe de France by beating Auxerre.
#5 Longest period without conceding a goal in La Liga: Claudio Bravo - Barcelona
When Claudio Bravo joined Barcelona, he had big shoes to fill in as he was replacing Victor Valdes – a long-term servant for the Catalans. In addition to this he had to ensure that he was on the top of his game throughout the season because he faced stiff competition from the young German goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
None of this seemed to have affected Bravo as the Chilean went on to set a La Liga record within seven league games.
On October 4, Barcelona played against Rayo Vallecano and the Catalans won the game 2-0. In the process, Bravo went 630 minutes without conceding a goal and thus surpassed the La Liga record of former Barcelona keeper Pedro Maria Artola, who went 560 minutes without conceding a goal back in 1978.
Bravo and Barcelona went one more game without conceding a goal and the run was eventually stopped by a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty in the first El Clasico of the season. Bravo’s run eventually ended at 754 minutes.
#6 British transfer record: Manchester United sign Angel Di Maria
When Manchester United endured its worst Premier League season in 2013/14, they needed to take big steps to quickly get back into the Champions League place, at least. The club splashed a lot of money in the summer transfer window prior to the start of the 2014/15 season and eventually the Red Devils broke the record for the highest transfer fee paid by a British club to secure the services of a player.
Manchester United signed Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid for £59.7m, thereby breaking the record set by Chelsea when they signed Fernando Torres from Liverpool for £50m on transfer deadline day in January 2011.
Interestingly the 10 most expensive transfers in British history happened after 2011 and there is only one English player in the list.
# | Player | Transfer Fee | Moving To | Moving From |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Angel Di Maria | £59.7m | Manchester United | Real Madrid |
| 2 | Fernando Torres | £50m | Chelsea | Liverpool |
| 3 | Mesut Ozil | £42.5m | Arsenal | Real Madrid |
| 4 | Sergio Aguero | £38m | Manchester City | Atletico Madrid |
| 5 | Juan Mata | £37.1m | Manchester United | Chelsea |
| 6 | Andy Carroll | £35m | Liverpool | Newcastle United |
Alexis Sanchez | £35m | Arsenal | FC Barcelona | |
| 8 | Fernandinho | £34m | Manchester City | Shakhtar Donetsk |
| 9 | Robinho | £32.5m | Manchester City | Real Madrid |
| 10 | Eliaquim Mangala | £32m | Manchester City | FC Porto |
#7 Most consecutive wins in Spanish football: Real Madrid
Real Madrid’s run started in September with an emphatic 5-1 win over FC Basel in the UEFA Champions League and the club made it 22 straight wins across all competitions when it defeated San Lorenzo in the final of the FIFA Club World Cup. During its run of victories the club won 12 league games, 6 Champions League games, 2 FIFA Club World Cup games and 2 Copa del Rey matches.
The previous record was held by Barcelona who had won 18 games on the trot and Real Madrid went past that with a 4-0 win over Ludogorets in the final group stage game of the Champions League. The run was ended by Valencia in a league game despite Los Blancos taking the early lead and in the end they fell short of the world record held by Brazilian team Coritiba (24-game winning streak).
Real’s run has seen them clock up an incredible 81 goals of which 28 were scored by Cristiano Ronaldo.
#8 Most La Liga hat-tricks: Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo scored all of Real Madrid’s goals in a 3-0 win over Celta Vigo on December 6 and thus broke La Liga’s long standing record with his 23rd hat-trick for Real Madrid. His third goal of that game was also his 200th of his La Liga career, a feat achieved in just 178 games, faster than any other player – an incredible achievement for a player who is playing only his sixth season in the Spanish top flight.
Later in March, Lionel Messi took the lead from Ronaldo when the Argentine scored his 24th hat-trick in La Liga in a 6-1 win over Rayo Vallecano. But despite Real Madrid’s erratic form in the second half of the season, Ronaldo drew level with Messi when he scored 5 goals in a 9-1 thrashing of Granada.
In the last four league games of the season, Ronaldo scored three more hat-tricks and pulled away from Messi and took his tally of hat-tricks to a record 27.
| # | Player | Hat-tricks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | 27 |
| 2 | Lionel Messi | 24 |
| 3 | Alfredo di Stefano | 22 |
Telmo Zarra | 22 | |
| 5 | Edmundo Suarez | 19 |
| 6 | Cesar Rodriguez | 16 |
| 7 | Isidro Langara | 13 |
| 8 | Ferenc Puskas | 12 |
| 9 | Laszio Kubala | 11 |
Manuel Badenes | 11 | |
Pahinho | 11 | |
| 12 | Quini | 10 |
#9 Most Coppa Italia titles: Juventus
The 2014/15 season was a great one for Juventus as they were on the brink of becoming the first Italian club to complete the treble. Although they fell short of completing the feat, they completed a domestic double by winning the Serie A and the Coppa Italia.
Juventus won the Coppa Italia title by defeating Lazio in the final despite falling behind in the fourth minute and having to take the match into extra time. The title was Juventus’ 10th Coppa Italia title which put them one ahead of Roma who has nine to their name.
It was also the first time Juventus won the prestigious trophy after its win in 1995 when it defeated Parma in a two-legged final, although the club reached the final on three more occasions during those 20 years, with the latest coming in 2011/12 when they lost to Napoli.
| # | Club | Coppa Italia titles |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Juventus | 10 |
| 2 | AS Roma | 9 |
| 3 | Internazionale | 7 |
| 4 | Fiorentina | 6 |
Lazio | 6 | |
| 6 | Torino | 5 |
Milan | 5 | |
Napoli | 5 | |
| 9 | Sampdoria | 4 |
| 10 | Parma | 3 |
#10 Most touches in a Bundesliga game: Xabi Alonso
Xabi Alonso has been a hero at every club he has played at and it didn’t take him long to feel welcomed by the people of Munich. The former Liverpool and Real Madrid star quickly became a regular starter for Bayern Munich and his calmness and composure with the ball at his feet was admirable.
However, in just his fifth Bundesliga game for the club – an away game against Koln – the veteran ran the show in an emphatic manner. Alonso made 204 touches of the ball in the game, which meant that he touched the ball at least once every thirty seconds!
Alonso’s feat took him past his compatriot Thiago Alcantara, who set the record in 2013/14 with 177 touches against Eintracht Frankfurt. The statistic which was introduced in 1999 is dominated by Bayern Munich players as they hold the top five ranks.
# | Player | Opposition | Season | Touches |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Xabi Alonso | FC Koln | 2014/15 | 204 |
| 2 | ThiagoAlcantara | Frankfurt | 2013/14 | 177 |
| 3 | Toni Kroos | Berlin | 2013/14 | 171 |
| 4 | Xabi Alonso | Paderborn | 2014/15 | 165 |
| 5 | Bastian Schweinsteiger | Berlin | 2009/10 | 155 |
