10 La Liga records which are here to stay

Since its inception in 1928, the Spanish league has been one of the most competitive football leagues in the world. According to Uefa’s league coefficient, the La Liga has been the strongest European league in the last five years.The best players in the world traditionally move to play in Spain; the list of ‘English Premier League Player of the Season’ winners who have moved to the Spanish league the subsequent season include Luis Suarez, Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and Thierry Henry in recent years. Records are funny things and can be made and broken when least expected.Here is a look at some established in the Spanish league which are unlikely to be emulated in the near future.

#1 Most league titles won: Real Madrid - 32

To say that Real Madrid have been the most successful football club in the world is not much of an overstatement. The club which also happens to be the richest in the world, in terms of revenue, were adjudged fittingly "FIFA Club of the 20th Century". Real have won the league title a record 32 times, their closest rivals being Barcelona with 22.

Real Madrid have also won a record 5 consecutive league titles twice, once in the early 1960s with a team that had Alfredo di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas; and again in the late 1980s with a team led by Emilio Butragueno. More recently, the star-studded nature of their team has led to them being named the Galacticos.

Leave alone teams catching up with their number of titles, it is more likely that Real shall pull even further away from their rivals in the upcoming seasons.

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#2 Longest unbeaten home run: Real Madrid - 121

There are records that can be broken and then there are facts such as this which can only be classified as data. During the years between 1956 and 1965, Real Madrid did not lose at their home stadium. This team, often called the greatest club team of all ages, refused to give an inch of the Santiago Bernebeau to any visiting team for 9 years.

Alfredo di Stefano was the greatest player in this team of a stars – starting as centre-forward but dropping back to midfield, and even helping to organise the defence. Gento was one of best left wingers in history and the team gained a star to rival Di Stefano when Ferenc Puskas joined in 1958 after defecting from communist Hungary. The idea of a team of stars has defined the club to the present day, but no generation could ever match up to this generation of Los Blancos.

They won the European Cup for an incredible run of five consecutive years, and reached two other finals in this period. They also won 7 La Liga titles in these 9 years.

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#3 Most consecutive games without a loss: Real Sociedad - 38

Real Sociedad enjoyed a period of glory in the early 1980s, set off by this unbeaten run of more than a year. Under the guidance of Alberto Ormaetxea, the San Sebastien team with a strict policy of allowing only Basque players to play for them, did not lose any home or away fixture between 29 April 1979 and 11 May 1980.

Sociedad reached the penultimate round of the 1979-80 season having been undefeated and on way to a first La Liga title, but were denied by a 1-2 defeat to Sevilla, on what has been described as the saddest night in the club’s history.

The disappointment is sure to have been made up for by the consecutive league titles Sociedad were to win in the next two seasons.

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#4 Fewest away goals scored in a season: Deportivo la Coruna - 2

Deportivo la Coruna have been called an elevator team, because for much of their past they have had rapid rises and falls.

Despite having one of the best youth systems of the 1960s, Depotivo often found themselves facing relegation to the second division, and on two stray occassions even to the third division.

The 1964-65 season went down in SuperDepor history as one of the most dismal ever. They had a change of manager midway into the season, they finished last and well behind the 2nd last team, and failed to win any of their away matches.

The 2 goals that they scored away from home were in losing causes, a 1-2 defeat to Sevilla and a 1-4 defeat to Real Zaragoza.

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#5 Most consecutive appearances scored in: Lionel Messi - 21

Lionel Messi ran amok in the Spanish league in the year 2012, scoring an unprecedented 91 goals and breaking a million records in the process; but FIFA does not recognize the number of goals scored in a calendar year citing verifiability issues.

The greatest footballer of this generation scored in all matches between matchday 11 to matchday 34 of the 2012-13 season, an individual feat that has no peer and is unlikely to have one soon.

Over this period he scored a total of 33 goals, scoring at will – on occasions; three or four per match. This is the only instance of a player having scored against all 19 teams in a La Liga season. He was given the honour of wearing the captain’s armband for the first time towards the end of this period.

The Messi juggernaut was forced to a halt by a hamstring injury that forced him to go off midway between a match against Atletico Madrid. The rest of the Barcelona team were so lost without their talisman that they needed an own goal to beat Atletico.

Watch all of Messi’s 91 goals in 2012.

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#6 Most hat-tricks in a season: Lionel Messi - 8

Lionel Messi is an entity nobody understands perfectly.

Defenders and fans alike are often left pondering on the mystery behind his ball control and effortlessly wafting runs. Therefore his career is often reduced to numbers and statistics, which is a comparatively easy task because the numbers he achieves are not easily confused with the numbers other players achieve.

Hat-tricks are rare achievements, unless the footballer in question is the 5’7’’ Argentine, whose greatness lies in how easy he can make difficult tasks appear.

In the 2011-12 season, Messi scored a record eight hat-tricks. He had scored seven the previous season. He also achieved the unique feat of scoring 5 goals in a Champions League match against Bayer Leverkusen.

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#7 Fastest hat-trick in La Liga: David Villa - 4 minutes 44 seconds

In a match in the fag end of the 2005-06 season between Athletic Bilbao and Valencia, lightning struck – in the form of a 22-year-old David Villa who had only arrived recently.

Bilbao had played better football and showed more intent for a whole of 82 minutes, but the score was locked at 0-0. Then came the Villa show as received a long ball and slotted it under the legs of the keeper on 81’06’’, as the Sky Sports commentator was left to philosophize – “This is football!”

This was only the beginning though. On 83’48’’ Villa received another through pass and left the entire defence in disarray to score a second. The third goal on 85’52’’ was a beautiful team goal, with Mista laying it off for Villa for him to put the ball in an open net and complete the fastest hat-trick in La Liga history.

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#8 Most appearances: Andoni Zubizarreta - 622

Andoni Zubizarreta is an old war horse in the truest sense of the term.

He began his senior club career at Athletic Bilbao at the age of 20. He battled his way through 13 years as the protector of his country’s goal, and from 1981 to 1998 was a sure starter in the three clubs that he played for – Athletic Bilbao (5 years, 169 caps); Barcelona (8 years, 301 caps); Valencia (4 years, 152 caps).

Zubizarreta also holds the record for the most number of clean sheets in the La Liga – 233.

Iker Casillas has beaten his record of most international clean sheets for Spain, but is quite a way from rivaling Zubizarreta’s domestic record. Zubizarreta was not able to move away from football after his retirement either, he has since been working for Barcelona in various directorial capacities.

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#9 Most red cards in a single match: 6

On 14 December 2003, Barcelona came from behind to register a 3-1 victory over Espanyol, but the day is remembered better as a black day with 6 red cards having been issued.

Barcelona were down by a goal, but had scored all the three goals by the 35th minute through Ronaldinho and Patrick Kluivert. Espanyol were gutted at the fashion their lead was given away and frustrations crept into their gameplay.

Espanyol’s De la Pena hacked at the right leg of Reizeger without getting anywhere close to the ball to receive the first red of the match in the 41st minute. Barcelona’s Philip Cocu then received the other straight red card of the match in the 65th minute, unjustly as replays showed he had only been standing his ground.

The match was interrupted by several off-the-ball altercations, and the teams seemed eager to just see the game off. No other goals were scored and four players received double yellow cards – Raphael Marquez, Ricardo Quaresma (Barcelona) and Toni Soldevilla, Lopo (Espanyol).

The referee officiating was the Spanish Alfonso Pino, who has a dubious record of issuing 30 red cards in 63 league games officiated.

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#10 Coach with most matches: Luis Aragones - 757

Luis Aragones is often credited to be the founder of Spain’s possession based football that reaped such rewards in the last decade. Spain ended a 44-year trophy drought when he was their manager. And after his recent demise, the whole of Spain’s footballing community were united in expressing gratitude to the man responsible for the most successful chapter in Spanish history.

Before being appointed manager of Spain in 2004, Aragones had spent 30 years in La Liga, being in charge of 9 different clubs over this period. He spent one season with Barcelona and won the Copa del Rey in 1987, and came within 4 points of winning the league with Valencia in 1996. He was better known though for steering less-fancied teams like Espanyol and Mallorca to top half finishes.

His greatest success in La Liga was with Atletico Madrid, where he was coach for 15 years spread over 4 spells. Having also spent the majority of his playing days as an Atletico Madrid player, he was a favourite at the Vicente Calderon.

He is the most successful coach in the club’s history, having guided them to one La Liga title and two Copa del Rey trophies.

In 2001-02, he returned for a final spell as coach of his boyhood club and finished the season on top of Segunda Division, thus guiding them back to the first division.

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