Most Goals in a La Liga Season (35 Goals or More)

Most Goals in a La Liga Season: Only eight players in the 95-year history of La Liga have ever scored 35 or more goals in a single season. Most of those seasons belong to two men: Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The list stretches from 1950-51 to 2016-17 and represents the most sustained individual goalscoring brilliance the competition has ever witnessed.

10. Lionel Messi — 2016–17

• Club: FC Barcelona 🇦🇷
• Goals: 37
• Appearances: 34
• Ratio: 1.088

Lionel Messi scored 37 La Liga goals in 34 appearances during the 2016-17 season with a ratio of 1.088. This was his seventh consecutive season scoring 30 or more La Liga goals — a record no other player in the competition’s history has matched. He combined his 37 goals with 9 La Liga assists that season.

Barcelona won the Copa del Rey but finished second in La Liga behind Real Madrid. Messi’s 37-goal season would be the defining achievement of any other player’s entire career. For Messi it was merely his seventh consecutive 30-plus goal season and sits 10th on the all-time list of La Liga‘s greatest individual scoring seasons.

9. Hugo Sánchez — 1989–90

• Club: Real Madrid 🇲🇽
• Goals: 38
• Appearances: 35
• Ratio: 1.086

Hugo Sánchez scored 38 La Liga goals in 35 appearances for Real Madrid in 1989-90 — a ratio of 1.086. He won the La Liga Pichichi top scorer trophy for the fourth consecutive season that year, a record that has never been equalled. He was the most complete centre-forward in La Liga during the entire second half of the 1980s.

He scored goals with both feet, with his head, from bicycle kicks, and from acrobatic volleys. He was famous for his trademark somersault celebration. He is the greatest Mexican footballer of all time. His 38 goals in 1989-90 were the most by any player in La Liga for over two decades until Messi and Ronaldo arrived and redefined what was possible in a single season.

8. Telmo Zarra — 1950–51

• Club: Athletic Bilbao 🇪🇸
• Goals: 38
• Appearances: 30
• Ratio: 1.267

Telmo Zarra scored 38 La Liga goals in just 30 appearances for Athletic Bilbao in 1950-51 with a ratio of 1.267. He needed five fewer games than Hugo Sánchez to match the same total. He was 30 years old that season and still the most devastating centre-forward in Spanish football. He won the La Liga Pichichi award for top scorer six times throughout his career.

His 38-goal season in 1950-51 stood as the best single-season tally in La Liga history for 60 years until Cristiano Ronaldo scored 40 in 2010-11. Zarra’s 1.267 goals-per-game ratio for this season is the third best on this entire list — bettered only by Messi’s extraordinary 2012-13 campaign. He is a true legend of La Liga and of Spanish football.

7. Luis Suárez — 2015–16

• Club: FC Barcelona 🇺🇾
• Goals: 40
• Appearances: 35
• Ratio: 1.143

Luis Suárez scored 40 La Liga goals in 35 appearances for FC Barcelona in 2015-16 with a ratio of 1.143. He won the La Liga Pichichi top scorer trophy that season. He scored four goals in each of the final two league matches of the season against Deportivo de La Coruña and Sporting Gijón to finish as the top scorer ahead of Messi and Ronaldo.

He was the third member of Barcelona’s legendary MSN attacking trio alongside Messi and Neymar. Barcelona won the La Liga title that season. His 40-goal season is the highest single-season tally ever achieved by a player who is not named Messi or Ronaldo in the modern La Liga era.

6. Cristiano Ronaldo — 2010–11

• Club: Real Madrid 🇵🇹
• Goals: 40
• Appearances: 34
• Ratio: 1.176

Cristiano Ronaldo scored 40 La Liga goals in 34 appearances for Real Madrid in 2010-11 with a ratio of 1.176. He won the La Liga Pichichi top scorer award that season. He broke Telmo Zarra’s 60-year-old La Liga single-season record of 38 goals. He outscored Suárez’s 2015-16 tally by having the same number of goals in one fewer game.

Real Madrid finished second in La Liga to Barcelona that season despite Ronaldo’s extraordinary personal tally. He went on to break his own record the following season with 46 goals. He already held the La Liga record for most goals in a season when he broke it again.

5. Lionel Messi — 2014–15

• Club: FC Barcelona 🇦🇷
• Goals: 43
• Appearances: 38
• Ratio: 1.132
• Season: 2014–15

Lionel Messi scored 43 La Liga goals in 38 appearances for FC Barcelona in 2014-15 with a ratio of 1.132. He won the La Liga title that season with Barcelona as part of the historic Treble — La Liga, Copa del Rey, and Champions League all won in a single campaign. He also scored 10 Champions League goals that season.

He scored 58 goals across all competitions that season. He was directly involved in 43% of Barcelona’s La Liga goals that season. His 43 goals in 2014-15 was his fourth separate 40-plus goal La Liga season. In any other era of La Liga history, 43 goals would be the all-time single-season record. For Messi it ranks fifth on his own personal list.

4. Cristiano Ronaldo — 2011–12

• Club: Real Madrid 🇵🇹
• Goals: 46
• Appearances: 38
• Ratio: 1.211

Cristiano Ronaldo scored 46 La Liga goals in 38 appearances for Real Madrid in 2011-12 with a ratio of 1.211. He scored his 46 goals in the same season that Lionel Messi scored a record 50. Their combined tally of 96 La Liga goals that season is the most by any two players in the same league in the same season in European football history.

Real Madrid won La Liga that season with 100 points, 121 goals, and a +89 goal difference — all three figures being La Liga records at the time. Ronaldo’s 46-goal haul in a title-winning season remains one of the greatest individual scoring campaigns in the history of the sport. In any other era it would be the undisputed La Liga single-season record.

3. Lionel Messi — 2012–13

• Club: FC Barcelona 🇦🇷
• Goals: 46
• Appearances: 32
• Ratio: 1.438

Lionel Messi scored 46 La Liga goals in just 32 appearances in 2012-13 with a ratio of 1.438 — the best goals-per-game ratio for any season on this entire list. He matched Ronaldo’s 46 goals from the previous season while playing six fewer games. He scored his 46 La Liga goals in just 32 matches. He came into 2012-13 off the back of his record 50-goal season the previous year.

He also scored 91 goals in the 2012 calendar year — a record for any footballer in a single calendar year. Barcelona won La Liga that season. His 1.438 goals-per-game ratio is the greatest single-season ratio in La Liga history for any player with 35 or more goals. He was scoring at an average of nearly one and a half goals per game.

2. Cristiano Ronaldo — 2014–15

• Club: Real Madrid 🇵🇹
• Goals: 48
• Appearances: 35
• Ratio: 1.371
• Season: 2014–15

Cristiano Ronaldo scored 48 La Liga goals in 35 appearances for Real Madrid in 2014-15 with a ratio of 1.371. He won the La Liga Pichichi top scorer award for the second consecutive season. He scored seven hat-tricks in La Liga that season alone — including a four-goal haul against Elche in September 2014 and five goals against Granada in April 2015.

He scored 61 goals across all competitions that season — the most by any player in a single season in the history of Real Madrid. He broke his own La Liga scoring record from 2010-11 again with this campaign. He contributed to 58% of Real Madrid’s total La Liga goals that season. His 48-goal tally has never been bettered by any player in La Liga history except Lionel Messi in 2011-12.

1. Lionel Messi — 2011–12

• Club: FC Barcelona 🇦🇷
• Goals: 50
• Appearances: 37
• Ratio: 1.351
• Season: 2011–12

Lionel Messi’s 2011-12 La Liga season is the greatest individual scoring campaign in the history of football. He scored 50 La Liga goals in 37 appearances — the most goals any player has ever scored in a single La Liga season. He scored those 50 goals in 37 separate matches. He came into the final match of the season needing two goals against Athletic Bilbao to reach 50 and scored them both. He also scored 73 goals across all competitions that season — the most in a single season by any footballer in the history of the sport.

He scored 16 assists alongside his 50 goals for the greatest goal-involvement total in a single La Liga season. He was playing in the same league and the same season as Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored 46 La Liga goals that year. Both figures are in the top three on this list. Messi’s 50 goals have now stood as the La Liga single-season record for over 14 years. No player has scored more than 43 La Liga goals in a season since. The record is almost certainly permanent.