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LaLiga’s 2018/19 season culminated last weekend, but we still can’t shake off the jitters… what an incredible season it was!
FC Barcelona won its 26th league crown. Real Madrid lost 12 games for the first time since 1999. Getafe are back in the Europa League after nine years. Villarreal and Celta Vigo battled relegation all season only to attain survival at the end. Huesca got relegated in its maiden sojourn in the Spanish top-flight… And so, so much more!
Individually too, there have been multiple talking points as some players improved massively while some witnessed a dramatic decline. However, we shall content ourselves for now with the most prolific names of this season in LaLiga.
So let’s get going. Here are the top five scorers in 2018/19 season:
#5 Cristhian Stuani (Girona) - 19 goals
It’s a real testament to your abilities when you finish in the bracket of the five most prolific despite your club going down.
Girona were relegated from LaLiga after a poor campaign, and yet, Stuani posted the fifth best figures with 19 goals.
The Uruguayan was the sole shining light in an otherwise dysfunctional Blanquivermells squad, welling the ball left, right and centre. He also earned a unique distinction of scoring at the Camp Nou as well as the Santiago Bernabeu, as Stuani shouldered a vast majority of his side’s burden.
The 32-year old was the star of Girona’s maiden season in the top flight last year when he banged in 21 goals to help achieve a mid-table finish. And even though he registered almost identical figures time around too, the team suffered a different fate as it couldn’t aid and abet his cause enough, and eventually paid the price.
#4 Iago Aspas (Celta Vigo) - 20 goals
The former Liverpool outcast’s ascent in the last three years has been phenomenal. Not only did he recapture his prolific best, but also earned 17 international caps with Spain in the same time span.
For the third year in a row, he finished as the most prolific Spaniard in LaLiga as well as in any other top five leagues in Europe, even edging Borussia Dortmund’s Paco Alcacer.
Like Stuani, he too wasn’t serviced enough by his team-mates as the Celestes avoided the drop by a whisker, finishing 17th and only four points clear of Girona.
And without Aspas leading the line, it would’ve surely spelt doom for the Galicians, further accentuated by their horrendous record of eight defeats in 10 games without him wherein he was sidelined with a calf injury.
For consolation, he picked up the Player of the Month award for the month of April after scoring four times in five games.
#3 Luis Suarez (Barcelona) - 21 goals
To finish the season as the joint second-highest scorer - he’s placed third only by the virtue of an inferior assist record - and also have a hat-trick against arch-rivals Real Madrid to boast about cannot be deemed as a disappointment. But it’s Luis Suarez we’re talking about, and we have seen better from him.
Perhaps, age is fast catching up with him, because nothing else could add substance to his steady decline in the last three years.
He was at his scintillating best during Messi’s injury-enforced layoff, but it went all downhill once the Argentine ace returned to the fold.
An injury-time equaliser in the 4-4 whiz-bang to Villarreal and the late opener against Atletico Madrid were some of the few highlights of his season besides the treble against Los Blancos as Suarez went completely missing in all the last four games.
#2 Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) - 21
Exactly a year ago, had I told you that the following season would be Benzema’s best in a while and he would finish as the second highest scorer in the division, you’d have probably thrown me in a room full of nutters and showed sleeping pills down my throat.
And yet, here we are. Heck, here’s Benzema. Reborn and rejuvenated. 21 goals and seven assists. 30 goals in all competitions. His highest overall tally since 2012. His second highest return in the league.
All of this year, just a year after enduring his worst. The Frenchman was not only written off but also saw his Real Madrid future hanging by the balance. But he chose to stick around, successfully shrugging off the struggles and breathing new life in his career.
It’s a shame that all this couldn’t account for anything as Los Blancos capped its worst season in 20 years and finished trophyless in the most embarrassing fashion. But individually at least, Benzema can look back upon with a glint in his eye.
How much difference a year makes, no?
#1 Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - 36 goals
Messi is a great footballer. Messi plays for FC Barcelona as a forward. Messi is adept at free-kicks and also possesses amazing dribbling skills. Messi is compared with Juventus superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. Messi is 32-year old.
Jokes apart, Messi was at his rip-roaring best again. The Catalan No.10 dragged his side through thick and thin and was the single biggest reason behind another LaLiga triumph.
No surprises there. No shocks either. It had to be him.
With a staggering 36 goals in 34 appearances, Messi was comfortably in a league of his own. He also picked up a sixth Pichichi prize, drawing level with Bilbao legend Telmo Zarra in the all-time list, as he also leads PSG's Kylian Mbappe in the race for the European Golden Boot.
He also led the assists charts with 13 and scored most hat-tricks in the league (3).
Lionel Messi just being Lionel Messi. Nothing unprecedented.
