Lionel Messi Becomes 1st Player in La Liga History to Win a Prestigious Award for the 8th Time

Lionel Messi Becomes 1st Player in La Liga History to Win a Prestigious Award for the 8th Time

- Lionel Messi became the first La Liga player to win five consecutive top scorers award

- The Argentine finished top of the chart with 30 goals and nine assists in 35 appearances

- Messi is also the only player with eight Pichichi awards in the history of the award

Barcelona legend Lionel Messi continued his dominance in the Spanish League after winning his eighth-highest goal scorers award in the recently concluded season.

Despite missing the Catalans' last game of the season against Eibar, the 33-year-old already scored enough goals to see him win the prestigious prize for the fifth consecutive campaign.

He beats Hugo Sanchez and Alfredo Di Stefano who the same recognition four straight times during their reigns.

The Argentine scored 30 goals - seven better than Karim Benzema and Gerard Moreno who finished second with 23 goals apiece on the chart according to pragativadi.

Lionel Messi wins record 8th Spanish League top scorer's award with 30 goals last season
Lionel Messi posing with his Pichichi award after topping the goalscorers chart at the end of the 2016-17 season Photo credit should read LLUIS GENE/AFP.
Source: Getty Images

Apart from winning the goal scorers award in the 2020-21 season, Lionel Messi also recorded 30 league goals in nine seasons in his career.

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In spite of his claims that he is not interested in the award, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner has extended his Pichichi title to eight, gapping legendary Telmo Zarra with two awards.

Messi won his maiden top scorers' award in 2009-10 and has now increased the number to eight 11 years later - 2011–12, 2012–13, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21.

Meanwhile, it is not certain as of now if the 33-year-old will be playing for the Camp Nou outfit next season or he will finally walk away from them this summer.

YEN.com.gh earlier reported that Robert Lewandowski scored 41 goals in Bundesliga to break the long-standing record of Gerd Muller who netted 40 in the 1971-72 season.

The Bayern Munich striker also emerged as the top scorer in Europe with his closest rival Lionel Messi scoring 30 and Cristiano Ronaldo netting 29 goals respectively.

Paris Saint-Germain Kylian Mbappe netted 27 in Ligue 1 while Tottenham's Harry Kane emerged top scorer at the just concluded English Premier League.

Source: YEN.com.gh

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Aba Afful (Copyeditor) Maame Aba serves as a copy editor at YEN.com.gh. She naturally enjoys working with words and has an eye for quality content. She has a keen interest in cyberspace and wants to see YEN.com.gh produce more impactful, thought-provoking, and error-free content. Aba has five years of experience as a content writer, blogger, author, and proofreader. She graduated from the Ghana Institute of Journalism in 2017. She joined the team in 2021.