Throughout its long and illustrious history La Liga has been blessed with a cornucopia of astonishing strikers as our all killer, no filler list illustrates.
Legends all, these lethal 10 defined themselves by goals. Lots and lots of goals.
10) Karim Benzema
Prior to the 2021/22 season most La Liga predictions had the French star down as odds-on to win the Pichichi trophy for La Liga’s leading scorer. This is hardly a surprise given that Benzema had finished runner-up three years running, each time behind Messi.
With the Argentine megastar having left for PSG the multiple La Liga champion has indeed fulfilled his destiny, blasting goals in for Real Madrid on an almost weekly basis and it’s a testament to his staggering consistency that this is the case.
In over a decade in Spain, the former Lyon hit-man broke the 20-goal barrier on six occasions. He capped off a magnificent spell at the Bernabeu with the Ballon d'Or in 2022.
9) David Villa
La Roja’s all-time leading goalscorer played for five Spanish clubs but arguably its from his short spell at Barcelona where he most stood out, a deadly finisher for an unforgettable creation that gave tiki-taka to the world.
Having won the Champions League, La Liga with two different clubs, and a World Cup, his is a medal collection that exceeds most and so much of this glory was accrued from his sixth sense knowing where the goal was.
8) Ronaldo
The original – and some say best – Ronaldo was involved in two of the biggest La Liga transfers of all time, first joining Barcelona for a then world record sum of £19.5m in 1996, and later being the most glittering of the Galacticos, signing for Real Madrid from Inter in 2002.
At both behemoths he progressed what was believed possible from a footballer, a devastating fusion of trickery and pace, with a brain that could somehow keep up with his dynamism.
At times the Brazilian was a one-man army who only required his team-mates to give him the ball.
Sadly, injuries curtailed his genius, but we will always have the YouTube clips of his extraordinary goals as a consolation.
7) Ferenc Puskas
The ‘Galloping Major’ was a pivotal figure in the revolutionary ‘Mighty Magyars’, the Hungarian national team that is credited with transforming world football, introducing a tactical awareness that had previously been scoffed at.
Puskas was at the heart of that and at Real Madrid he was equally as influential, scoring seven goals in two European Cup finals and helping them win five league titles in a row.
Between 1958 and 1966 this giant of the game, who was afforded a state funeral on his passing, scored 156 goals in 180 outings.
6) Hugo Sanchez
Most famous for his spectacular bicycle kicks and backflip celebrations, the Mexican’s athleticism and nimble footwork made him one of the most watchable forwards in living memory.
For seven years he lit up the Bernabeu, entertaining the public and terrorising defences and in addition to his explosive contribution to Real Madrid, there were 54 goals for their neighbours Atletico and a further 16 in the twilight of his career at Rayo Vallecano.
In 1988, following a trademark acrobatic strike that defied physics, his manager Leo Beenhakker said: “"When a player scores a goal like that, play should be suspended and a glass of champagne offered to the 80,000 fans that witnessed it."
5) Raul
'El Ferrari’ was a fine example of a modern centre-forward, as capable of outrageous creativity as sniffing out a chance from five yards out. In essence, he was two players rolled into one, both of them brilliant.
Having come up through the Atletico Madrid youth ranks, having supported the Mattress Makers as a boy, his switch across the city to Real was necessitated by his beloved club shutting down their youth system to save costs. Big mistake.
Raul won six league titles with Real Madrid and lifted the Champions League on three occasions. Only four great players – two of whom are still to come on this list – have scored more goals in the latter tournament.
888’s La Liga Betting tips back Real to score most weeks. It would be every weekend if Raul Gonzalez Blanco still led their attack.
4) Cristiano Ronaldo
The man for the big occasion. Indeed, the man for any occasion. Whoever he played for, in a game of any scale, CR7 stole the show, scoring almost as an afterthought.
His stats for Real Madrid require a double-take, so staggering are they, with 450 goals across all competitions from 438 appearances. That’s 1.03 goals per game and comfortably makes him the all-time record scorer for Los Blancos.
Even factoring in his sublime talent, what really marks Ronaldo down as a genuine legend is his ability to adapt. In the first half of his career, he was a twinkle-toed conjurer.
As veteran status approached, he transformed into an uber-athlete, dispatching headers a lesser man would need a stepladder for.
Now having returned to Manchester United success at Old Trafford is worth an online football bet. With him anything is possible and most things probable.
3) Alfredo Di Stefano
The phenomenally gifted Argentine nicknamed the ‘Blonde Arrow’ scored 216 goals for Real Madrid in 282 games, striking up a partnership with Ferenc Puskas that even sixty years later remains iconic.
Undoubtedly their finest hour and a half took place at Hampden Park, Scotland when together they deconstructed Eintracht Frankfurt in a European Cup final. Purists consider it one of the greatest exhibitions of football witnessed.
A two-time Ballon d’Or winner and the sixth highest goal-scorer in the Spanish top-flight not for nothing did fellow legend Eusebio call him the ‘most complete footballer in the history of the game’. He really was special.
2) Telmo Zarra
Now we’re truly going old-school, with Pedro Telmo Zarraonandía Montoya wrecking much of his damage for Athletic Bilbao across the late-Forties and early-Fifties.
A sensationally prolific 251 La Liga goals had him down for many years as the league’s all-time record goal-scorer but subsequently his tally has been surpassed by Messi and Ronaldo. That still has him crowned as the king of the 20th century in our book.
His long spell with Los Leones heralded six Pichichis and for his team one league title. There is even a trophy named in his honour, given to La Liga’s top scorer each season.
1) Lionel Messi
For much of our lifetime, the magician from Rosario, Argentina has mesmerised the Camp Nou faithful and the wider world with his unerring ability to instruct a football to do exactly what he commands.
That this thrilling action is done on fast-forward just makes it all the more remarkable.
Our La Liga betting odds on Barcelona winning the league title in 2021/22 widened when Messi left for PSG last summer because even that famous institution was always going to struggle when deprived of such a rare talent.
The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner scored an incredible 474 La Liga goals and that’s without being an out-and-out centre-forward.
There are some who claim Lionel Messi is not the GOAT. These people are lying.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Alamy*
