Leo Messi breaks 50 goals mark once again

Leo Messi had another landmark season in 2018/19, including a sensational scoring record. The Argentine found the net 51 times in his 50 official appearances, exceeding a half-century of goals for the sixth time in his career. He would claim both the Pichichi award and the European Golden Shoe as a result, as well as having reached 600 goals for Barça.

A sixth Pichichi award

A tally of 36 goals in LaLiga made Messi the runaway winner of the Pichichi award, earned by him for the sixth time -the third in as many seasons. Along the way, he scored three hat tricks and was on target six times from free kicks.

The closest rivals to Messi were teammate Luis Suárez and Real Madrid's Karim Benzema, with 21 goals each.

Only Telmo Zarra has won the Pichichi award as many times as the FC Barcelona star, whilst in terms of the big European leagues only a select few have been top goalscorer on more occasions: In England, Jimmy Greaves was six-times top scorer in the First Division; in the Bundesliga, Gerd Müller did so seven times; Gunnar Nordahl was the best striker in Serie A for five seasons, and in France's Ligue 1,  Carlos Bianchi, Jean-Pierre Papin and Delio Onnis all achieved the honour five times.

A sixth Golden Shoe

Leo Messi also claimed another Golden Shoe award in 2018/19, three goals ahead of Paris Saint Germain's Kylian Mbappé.

The number 10 has now won the award six times, and has held it for the last three seasons -something unprecedented in football history. The closest to matching his scoring exploits is Cristiano Ronaldo, who is a four-time Golden Shoe winner.