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Cristiano
Ronaldo, who has fallen behind his great rival in terms of the number of
Pichichi titles he has won, came third, having struck 25 times.
All three players
scored on the final day of the Liga season, with Messi's double earning
Barcelona a 4-2 win over Eibar. He had missed a penalty before scoring from the
spot and then produced a wonderful individual goal to round off the scoring in
stoppage time.
Suarez had
drawn Barca level at 2-2 after Eibar had taken a shock 2-0 lead at Camp Nou.
Ronaldo,
meanwhile, opened the scoring inside the opening two minutes as Madrid eased to
a 2-0 victory away to Malaga to wrap up the title.
Messi’s haul
means that the winner of the prize has scored on average more than one goal per
game in each of the last seven seasons, and his tally will likely be enough to
also claim the European Golden Boot.
It is an
award that he and Ronaldo have dominated for the best part of a decade, with
Suarez last term the first player since Diego Forlan in 2008-09 to break the
pair’s duopoly.
With four
wins to his credit, the 29-year-old Argentine has drawn level with Ferenc
Puskas, the legendary Real Madrid striker, on four Pichichi crowns. However, he
still trails Atletico and Real forward Hugo
Sanchez,
ex-Real Sociedad and Barca attacker Quini and the great Alfredo Di Stefano, all
of whom have won the prize on five occasions.
Telmo Zarra,
who played for Athletic Bilbao in the 1940s and 50s, meanwhile, holds the
outright record on six.
The prize is
scant consolation for Messi, with Real Madrid having claimed La Liga on the
final day of the season at Malaga.
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