Top Scorer La Liga: Pichichi History, Records & Betting Guide

La Liga produces some of the most prolific goal scorers in world football. The Spanish top flight has been the stage for two of the greatest individual goal-scoring careers in the history of the game, and the competition to finish as the La Liga top scorer, known as the Pichichi, remains one of the most-watched individual races in the global football calendar every season.

This guide covers the current La Liga top scorer for 2025/26, the recent Pichichi winners, the records and the legendary names who have defined the award across its history. It also explains how to bet on goalscorer markets in La Liga at 96.com.

Who Is the La Liga Top Scorer in 2025/26?

The La Liga top scorer for the 2025/26 season is Kylian Mbappé of Real Madrid, who claimed his second consecutive Pichichi Trophy with 25 goals in Spain’s top division. The 2025/26 La Liga season ran from 15 August 2025 to 24 May 2026, producing 888 goals at an average of 2.69 per match across 330 fixtures.

Mbappé’s 2025/26 campaign was particularly notable given Real Madrid’s wider struggles as a team. Barcelona dominated the La Liga table throughout the season and were confirmed as champions well before the final day, finishing with the title that made it their second consecutive triumph. Despite playing in a team that underperformed collectively for much of the campaign, Mbappé’s individual output remained elite.

The most assists in La Liga 2025/26 went to Barcelona teenager Lamine Yamal, who recorded 11 in what was another exceptional season for the young Spaniard. Yamal pushed hard for the Pichichi himself before a late-season injury ended his challenge and left the golden boot race to Mbappé.

Mbappé’s Back-to-Back Pichichi Wins

Kylian Mbappé won the Pichichi Trophy in his very first La Liga season, scoring 31 goals in 2024/25 to claim the award by six goals ahead of the nearest challenger. It was one of the most impressive debut individual seasons in recent La Liga history, even as Real Madrid finished without a trophy.

Back-to-back Pichichi victories put Mbappé in rare company in the modern era. His two consecutive wins join a select list of players who have dominated the La Liga top scorer table in successive seasons. The combination of pace, intelligence in the box and a willingness to operate centrally, having shifted his game from a wide position to an increasingly central role at Real Madrid, has made him the most dangerous finisher in Spain since the Messi and Ronaldo era.

Recent La Liga Top Scorers: The Pichichi Roll of Honour

Season	Player	Club	Goals
2025/26	Kylian Mbappé	Real Madrid	25
2024/25	Kylian Mbappé	Real Madrid	31
2023/24	Artem Dovbyk	Girona	24
2022/23	Robert Lewandowski	Barcelona	23
2021/22	Karim Benzema	Real Madrid	27
2020/21	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	30
2019/20	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	25

The 2023/24 Pichichi winner, Artem Dovbyk, was one of the great surprise packages in recent La Liga history. The Ukrainian striker finished above some of the biggest names in world football while playing for Girona, a club competing in La Liga for the first time after their extraordinary promotion under Michel. His 24 goals earned him a move to AS Roma in the summer of 2024 and put Girona on a healthy transfer fee.

What Is the Pichichi Trophy?

The Pichichi Trophy is the award given each season to the La Liga top scorer. It is presented by the Spanish sports newspaper Marca, which has tracked and recognised the division’s leading goalscorer since the 1952/53 season. The name Pichichi comes from the nickname of Athletic Club forward Rafael Moreno Aranzadi, who was one of the most celebrated Spanish players of the early 20th century.

Records of La Liga’s top scorer stretch back further than the formal Pichichi award itself; goalscoring data in the Spanish top division has been tracked since the league’s first season in 1929. The trophy formalised and celebrated what had already been one of football’s most fiercely contested individual prizes.

Lionel Messi: 474 goals in 520 appearances

No conversation about the La Liga top scorer is complete without Lionel Messi at its centre. The Argentine is the most decorated Pichichi winner in the award’s history with eight trophies, and he is La Liga’s all-time leading goalscorer with 474 goals in 520 appearances for Barcelona between 2004 and 2021.

Messi’s eight Pichichi wins came in 2009/10, 2011/12, 2012/13, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21. Five of those came in consecutive seasons, a record for the award. In three of those winning campaigns, he scored more than 30 goals in the league alone. His final Pichichi win in 2020/21 came with 30 goals at the age of 33.

The single-season La Liga record belongs to Messi, too. In 2011/12, he scored 50 goals in 37 matches, a figure that represents one of the most extraordinary individual achievements in the history of the sport. He scored eight hat tricks that season and maintained an average of more than one goal per game throughout. No player in La Liga history has come close to matching it.

Cristiano Ronaldo: 311 goals in 292 appearances

Cristiano Ronaldo sits second on the all-time La Liga top scorer chart with 311 goals in 292 appearances for Real Madrid between 2009 and 2018. His goals per game ratio across that period was approximately 1.07, fractionally better than Messi’s ratio across a larger sample, making the comparison between the two one of the eternal debates in football statistics.

Ronaldo won the Pichichi Trophy three times, in 2010/11 with 40 goals, 2013/14 with 31 goals and 2014/15 with 48 goals. His 2014/15 tally of 48 goals in 35 matches remains one of the highest single-season totals in the history of the Spanish top division, second only to Messi’s 50.

Between 2009 and 2018, the Pichichi was won in ten consecutive seasons either by Messi or Ronaldo, one of the most remarkable duopolies any individual award in world sport has seen.

Other La Liga Top Scorer Records

Telmo Zarra is third on the all-time La Liga goals list with 251 and the second most prolific Pichichi winner with six trophies, all earned while playing for Athletic Club in the 1940s and 1950s. His achievements came in an era of very different football, but the consistency of his output over more than a decade at the top of Spanish football is remarkable.

Hugo Sánchez won the Pichichi five times, including four consecutive seasons from 1985/86 to 1988/89, while playing for Real Madrid. The Mexican forward was considered by many of his contemporaries as the most technically gifted striker in the world during that period, and his La Liga record of 234 goals across his career remains one of the benchmarks in the division’s history.

Alfredo Di Stéfano also won five Pichichi trophies in the 1950s, all in successive seasons from 1953/54 to 1958/59 with Real Madrid. Di Stéfano was a different kind of goalscorer, more complete, operating across the entire pitch. However, his ability to still finish at the top of the scoring charts underlined his extraordinary quality.

Karim Benzema, who won the Pichichi in 2021/22 with 27 goals and the Ballon d’Or the same year, sits among the top scorers of the modern era with 238 La Liga goals across his Real Madrid career before departing for Al Ittihad in 2023.

Most Pichichi Trophies: The All Time List

Player	Pichichi Wins	Years
Lionel Messi	8	2009/10 to 2020/21
Telmo Zarra	6	1944/45 to 1952/53
Hugo Sánchez	5	1984/85 to 1989/90
Alfredo Di Stéfano	5	1953/54 to 1958/59
Quini	5	1973/74 to 1981/82
Cristiano Ronaldo	3	2010/11 to 2014/15
Kylian Mbappé	2	2024/25 to 2025/26

Betting on La Liga Goalscorer Markets at 96.com

The La Liga top scorer race is one of the most engaging outright markets in Spanish football betting. Beyond the season-long race, goalscorer markets on individual matches, anytime scorer, first goalscorer and last goalscorer, generate significant betting interest across every La Liga matchday.

Outright Pichichi betting: At the start of each season, most platforms offer odds on which player will finish as the La Liga top scorer. These prices are typically available before the opening matchday and update throughout the campaign as the leading contenders separate from the rest.

Anytime goalscorer: For individual matches, anytime goalscorer odds allow you to back a player to score at any point in the game. In La Liga, fixtures featuring Mbappé, Lamine Yamal, Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha generate the most goalscorer betting activity.

First goalscorer: Higher odds than anytime scorer, reflecting the difficulty of predicting not just whether a player scores but whether they score first. La Liga fixtures in 2025/26 averaged 2.69 goals per match, a strong rate that supports active goalscorer markets throughout the campaign.

Live goalscorer markets: In-play betting allows you to back a player to score next at any point during a match, with odds shifting after each goal, substitution and chance created.

At 96.com, you can access all of these La Liga betting markets:

Create or log in to your 96.com account.
Deposit using a supported payment method, including crypto where available.
Open the sportsbook and select football.
Choose La Liga from the competitions menu.
Select your match or the outright top scorer market.
Pick your market, enter your stake and confirm your bet.

From Zarra to Mbappé: The Legacy Continues

The La Liga top scorer race has been one of football’s most compelling individual contests for nearly a century. From Telmo Zarra’s dominance in the 1940s and 1950s through Hugo Sánchez’s four consecutive wins in the 1980s to the extraordinary Messi and Ronaldo era that ran for a decade, and now to Mbappé’s back-to-back Pichichi wins, the prize reflects the very best individual attacking talent in world football.

At 96.com, you can bet on La Liga goalscorer markets, outright Pichichi odds and all Spanish football throughout the season. Always set a budget before you start and treat football betting as entertainment.

Frequently Asked Questions About the La Liga Top Scorer

Who is the La Liga top scorer in 2025/26?

Kylian Mbappé of Real Madrid is the La Liga top scorer for 2025/26 with 25 goals, winning the Pichichi Trophy for the second consecutive season.

What is the Pichichi Trophy?

The Pichichi Trophy is the award presented by Spanish sports newspaper Marca to the La Liga top scorer at the end of each season. The trophy has been awarded since the 1952/53 season and is named after Athletic Club legend Rafael Moreno Aranzadi.

Who has won the most Pichichi trophies?

Lionel Messi holds the record for the most Pichichi wins in his Barcelona career, with eight. Telmo Zarra is second with six, followed by Hugo Sánchez, Alfredo Di Stéfano and Quini with five each, and Cristiano Ronaldo with three.

Who is the all-time La Liga top scorer?

Lionel Messi is La Liga’s all-time top scorer with 474 goals in 520 appearances for Barcelona between 2004 and 2021. Cristiano Ronaldo is second with 311 goals for Real Madrid, and Telmo Zarra is third with 251.

What is the single-season La Liga scoring record?

The single-season La Liga scoring record is held by Lionel Messi, who scored 50 goals in 37 matches for Barcelona during the 2011/12 season.

Can I bet on the La Liga top scorer at 96.com?

Yes. At 96.com, you can bet on La Liga goalscorer markets, including outright Pichichi odds, anytime scorer, first goalscorer and in-play goalscorer markets across all La Liga fixtures.