The world of gaming is full of different activities from slot machines like Buffalo slots to complex, human-reliant games like football. Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera Division is the most prestigious professional division of the Spanish football league system. The league is simply known as La Liga or LaLiga Santander due to its sponsorship with Santander. Founded in 1929, La Liga runs under the UEFA confederation, and it is contested by twenty teams. The division sees numerous world-class players that have fans from all across the globe. Out of all the players that have had the honor of playing in La Liga games, here is the list of the top scorers:
Lionel Messi – 445 goals
Lionel Messi is hardly a strange name in the world of football. Each year, this football superstar adds new honors to his name that go with a vast collection of laurels he has earned over the years. Messi is considered not only the best player Barcelona has ever had but also the greatest footballer of all time. This claim backed his standing as the top scorer in the La Liga games with 445 goals to date. Considering he is still active in his career, this number is still counting. Messi is the only player in history to have won the top scorer award for seven seasons. His best run was in the 2011 – 2012 season when he scored fifty goals.
Lionel Messi is so horned in the craft of goal scoring that the second player on this list is behind by more than 100 goals. This goal machine is also praised for other achievements in the field, such as:
- Long portfolio of trophies and honors for himself as well as the Barcelona club and country Argentina;
- Undisputed dribbling genius that is often attributed to training and genetics;
- Amazing team coordination skills that he displays as captain of the Barcelona club;
- Natural talent that was so good Barcelona invested in a life-changing treatment that helped Messi overcome a growth hormone deficiency.
Cristiano Ronaldo – 311 goals
Cristiano Ronaldo is considered Lionel Messi’s most significant rival on the pitch, and the two players often have their skills pitted against each other. In this case, Ronaldo ranks second to Messi on the list of La Liga top scorers, but it’s not a small feat in any way. Ronaldo scored 311 goals in 292 games in the nine years he played for Real Madrid between 2009 and 2018. He also has the highest score ratio of 1.07 per game. Unlike most players that are considered the greatest of all time, Cristiano Ronaldo is loved by football fans across the globe for an exceptional work ethic that led him to the top. Some of the trophies and honors he owns include:
- Five FIFA Ballon d’Or titles
- 2008 FIFAPro World Player of the Year
- 2007-08 UEFA Club Footballer of the Year
- Four European Golden Shoe awards
- 2012-13 La Liga Most Valuable Player
- 2013-14 La Liga Best Player
Telmo Zarra – 251
Telmo Zara comes in third with 251 goals scored in fifteen years between 1940 and 1955 when the player was active. Zarra played as a football forward for Athletic Bilbao, and he remains the top scorer to ever play on the team with a record 335 goals. He was crowned the highest scorer by La Liga six times, a record which has since been broken by Lionel Messi. However, he still has the highest scored goals in the Copa del Rey with 81 goals. Telmo Zarra passed on in 2006 of a heart attack at the ripe age of 85.
Hugo Sanchez – 234
Hugo Sanchez is another classic player that competed in la Liga between 1981 and 1994. He played forward in teams like Athletico Madrid, UNAM, Athletico Celaya, Real Madrid, and Atlante. Sanchez is described as the greatest footballer of all time to hail from Mexico thanks to his spectacular volleys and strikes. As the fourth-highest scorer in La Liga, Sanchez has scored 234 goals.
Raul – 228
Raul Gonzalez Blanco, simply known as Raul, is a former striker who played with the teams like San Cristobal, Athletico Madrid, and finally Real Madrid before retiring. He is currently a football manager working with some of the top players in Real Madrid. Raul is regarded as among the most vital players in Real Madrid’s history and is the team’s second-leading scorer with 323 goals to his name. He also carries the crown of the most capped player in the club’s history with 741 appearances in his professional career. In La Liga, Raul has scored 228 goals, which makes him the fifth-highest on this list.
Alfredo Di Stefano – 227
Alfredo was born in 1926, and his professional career spanned between 1945 and 1966. The player was widely renowned for being a prolific forward who depended on power, speed, stamina, vision, and creativity to get ahead. He is best known for helping Real Madrid assert dominance in La Liga and the European Cup in the 1950s. During this time, he scored 227 goals while playing alongside other legends like Jose Maria Zarra and Francisco Gento. He also won six leagues while playing in Columbia and Argentina.
Cesar Rodriguez – 223
Cesar is a classic football legend that played between 1939 and 1960. The player popularly went by the nickname Cesar and was both a Spanish forward and manager in his lifetime. In his time as a football star, he mainly played for Barcelona and scored 232 goals in 351 games for the club. He held the title of the highest scorer in the team’s history until Lionel Messi came around and took over the title. In La Liga, he scored 223 goals and helped his team collect five of the titles. Cesar was mostly known for his ability to score corner goals.
Quini – 219
Quini played as a football striker for teams like Barcelona, Ensidesa, and Sporting Gijon. The player was also an active player for his home country Spain, which he represented in the European Championships and World Cups.
Final Comments
Pahino, Edmundo Suarez, Santillana, David Villa, and Juan Arza are also honorable mentions on this list of La Liga top scorers. Out of the players mentioned above, Lionel Messi is the only active one with a chance to drive up the number of goals he has scored so far.
