Ranking the 5 greatest individual seasons in La Liga

Bhargav
Cristiano Ronaldo (left) & Lionel Messi have produced some of the best-ever individual seasons in La Liga.
Cristiano Ronaldo (left) & Lionel Messi have produced some of the best-ever individual seasons in La Liga.

#3 Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - 2012-13

Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi, undoubtedly one of the best players to have played the game, is the all-time top-scorer in La Liga and has had several memorable campaigns in the competition.

One such campaign came in the 2012-13 La Liga season. Messi amassed 26 goals in the first half of the campaign. To go with his stellar exploits earlier in the year, the Argentine landed a record fourth-consecutive Ballon d'Or award.

The Barcelona ace did not relent in the second half of the campaign, scoring 20 goals as the Blaugrana dethroned reigning La Liga champions Real Madrid. He could have ended up with more if not for a hamstring injury that forced him to miss six of the last nine games of the season.


#2 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) - 2014-15

Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo

Three years after producing a 46-goal La Liga season, Cristiano Ronaldo was at it again, repeating the feat in 2014-15 despite playing four fewer games than he did in 2011-12.

Ronaldo amassed 26 goals in the first half of the season, including four hat-tricks. His three-goal haul against Celta Vigo made him the first player in La Liga history to register 23 hat-tricks. In the process, he brought up his 200th goal in the Spanish top-flight as Real Madrid won their 18th game in all competitions.

The Portuguese ace was unrelenting in the second half of the season too, netting four more hat-tricks including a stunning five-goal haul against Granada. Ronaldo ended the season with 46 goals, scoring three hat-tricks in his last four games, as Real Madrid fell short by two points in a titanic title race.

Both the Merengues and Barcelona racked up 30 wins apiece. But it was the Blaugrana who won their fifth La Liga title in seven years, as Ronaldo's tally of 46 goals and 17 assists eventually went in vain.


#1 Lionel Messi - 2011-12

Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi produced one of the all-time great seasons in the history of top-flight football in 2011-12. The Argentine magician scored a staggering 50 La Liga goals, tallying an unbelievable 73 for the season in all competition while also racking up 34 assists.

There was little inkling of what was in store as Messi scored 'only' 19 goals in the first half of the season. But the Argentine was unstoppable in the second half of the campaign, amassing a monstrous 31 goals and registering five hat-tricks.

Crucially, Messi drew a rare blank in the 2-1 home defeat to Real Madrid and another in the last game of the season. That meant despite Messi's stellar exploits - 50 goals and 20 assists - the 2011-12 La Liga title went to Madrid, for whom Ronaldo registered a 46-goal campaign.

PREV 2 / 2

Quick Links

Edited by Sai Krishna