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With the La Liga giants reinforcing their ranks ahead of the 2021-22 season, it looks like we're in for an exciting and unpredictable campaign. The 2020-21 La Liga season had an exciting conclusion and the title race went down to the final day.
Atletico Madrid were able to prevail and be crowned champions but the title race was blown wide open in the final month of this past season.
Lionel Messi won the La Liga Golden Boot in 2020-21
Lionel Messi showcased incredible form in 2021 and won the La Liga Golden Boot by quite a distance. He scored 30 goals in the league. Gerard Moreno and Karim Benzema came second with 23 goals each.
Barcelona have now added Memphis Depay and Sergio Aguero to their frontline while Antoine Griezmann is being heavily linked with Il Rojiblancos as well.
As a result, the La Liga Golden Boot race could get really intense this 2021-22 season. Without further ado, let's take a look at five favourites to win it this upcoming season.
#5 Sergio Aguero (Barcelona)
Sergio Aguero did not have a great outing in the 2020-21 season with Manchester City. He missed the majority of the campaign through injury. The Argentine international was forced down the pecking order as the club grew resigned to the fact that he would leave at the end of the season.
Aguero made just 20 appearances for the Cityzens across all competitions last term, scoring six goals and providing one assist. But Aguero did just about enough to break Wayne Rooney's record of most goals scored for a single Premier League club. He managed to take his tally to 184 in the closing stages of the season.
Aguero is one of the best strikers of his generation, and Barcelona have been without a proper number 9 since Luis Suarez left the club in the summer of 2020. If Aguero is their focal point in attack next season with Lionel Messi and Memphis Depay providing him service, he could score tons of goals.
#4 Gerard Moreno (Villarreal)
Gerard Moreno enjoyed his best season at an individual level in 2020-21. He scored 23 goals in 33 appearances in La Liga last term. It was the first time that the Spaniard had managed to cross the 20 goal mark in a single season.
Moreno had a rather forgettable outing at Euro 2020 despite Spain making it to the semi-finals of the continental competition. He was wasteful in front of goal and couldn't score a goal in five appearances. But he did provide two assists for La Roja.
At 29-year-old, he has grown into a reliable goalscorer for his club. After winning the UEFA Europa League, Villarreal will return to the UEFA Champions League and Moreno will be one of their main weapons. He will also be one of the strikers to watch out for in the upcoming La Liga season.
#3 Luis Suarez (Atletico Madrid)
Luis Suarez was a man on a mission in the 2020-21 season. He wanted to prove to his former employers Barcelona that he still had what it takes to deliver at the top level. Suarez was left heartbroken after being shown the exit door rather unceremoniously at Barcelona in the summer of 2020.
He proved his point as he got off to a brilliant start to life at Atletico Madrid, scoring 16 goals in his first 17 appearances in the league. He did suffer a dip in form towards the end of the season but scored the all-important title-winning goal for Atletico Madrid on the final day of the season.
Suarez finished fourth in the La Liga Golden Boot race with 21 goals. He will be raring to go again and will be crucial to Atletico Madrid's title defence this term.
#2 Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
Karim Benzema was arguably Real Madrid's best player in the 2020-21 season. Being the most experienced and dependable attacker on the team, he was willing to shoulder the load of goalscoring and did it with aplomb. He was so good that he earned a call-up to the French national side for Euro 2020 after a six-year exile.
Benzema scored 23 goals in 34 La Liga appearances last season and is still going strong at the age of 33. As Real Madrid have not signed any new attacking players, the onus of goalscoring will once again fall on Benzema in the upcoming season.
The Frenchman will be happy to oblige and is also expected to pull strings in the final third thanks to his excellent playmaking abilities.
#1 Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Lionel Messi had a seven-goal lead over his competition in the La Liga Golden Boot race last term. He was at his imperious best in the second half of the season. After getting off to an underwhelming start to the campaign, Messi scored 24 goals in 21 matches in the league since the turn of the year.
Though he is not as fast as he used to be, Messi is still at the top of his game in every other aspect. The Argentina international's ball-carrying ability is second to none. Messi also continues to be a masterful finisher who can sidefoot, lob and even bang them into the net with relative ease.
With Memphis Depay and Sergio Aguero added to the frontline, Messi will be able to express himself even more in the 2021-22 season. Coming off a successful Copa America campaign where he also won the Golden Boot and the Best Player Award, there's no doubting Messi's form either.
