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Messi takes the second spot...

The 10 highest scoring players in La Liga since Cristiano Ronaldo left: Messi 2nd…

Cristiano Ronaldo left Real Madrid in the summer of 2018 and we’ve checked out the La Liga top scorers chart since he departed.

During his nine-year stint in Spain, Ronaldo scored 311 La Liga goals in just 292 appearances and averaged a strike every 80.7 minutes.

We’ve crunched the numbers and have found the 10 highest-scoring players in La Liga since the start of 2018-19.

10. Borja Iglesias – 60 goals

Narrowly edging out the likes of Vinicius Junior and Robert Lewandowski, Iglesias claims the 10th spot on this list with 60 La Liga goals over the last six years.

The 31-year-old has predominantly played for Real Betis during that time, although his best scoring season came during his time with Espanyol when he bagged 17 goals in the 2018–19 campaign.

He’s still on the books at Real Betis today, although he’s currently out on loan with Celta Vigo where he’s scored four goals in his last nine appearances.

9. Joselu – 62 goals

After struggling to find his best form in England during spells with Stoke City and Newcastle, Joselu returned to Spain in 2019 and quickly rediscovered his goalscoring instincts.

He enjoyed prolific spells with Alaves and Espanyol before joining Real Madrid on a season-long loan deal last season.

The 34-year-old scored 10 league goals to help Carlo Ancelotti’s side win La Liga and he also got his hands on the Supercopa de Espana and Champions League too.

8. Youssef En-Nesyri – 64 goals

The Moroccan forward recently left La Liga to join Fenerbahce, but his excellent scoring records with Sevilla and Leganes earn him a place on this list.

From 2018-19 onwards, En-Nesyri averaged 0.33 goals per game in La Liga, with his best scoring season coming in 2020–21 when he bagged 18 goals.

7. Ante Budimir – 65 goals

After scoring 17 goals for Osasuna last season, Budimir has kept up the same scoring pace this season with eight goals in his first 14 league matches.


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6. Luis Suarez – 69 goals

Given that Suarez hasn’t played in La Liga for the last two and a half years, it’s impressive in itself that he manages to make the cut for this list.

After being let go by Barcelona in the summer of 2020, the Uruguayan still had plenty of goals left in his boots as he joined Atletico Madrid and fired them to the league title in his debut season.

From 2018-19 to 2021–22, Suarez won two out of four La Liga titles and averaged 17 goals per season in that timeframe.

5. Antoine Griezmann – 75 goals

We still can’t quite fathom the fact that Griezmann has never won La Liga, despite spending his entire professional career playing in Spain.

The Frenchman regularly puts up elite goalscoring numbers along with being one of the best creative outlets in La Liga too.

Along with scoring 75 goals, Griezmann has also produced 49 assists in La Liga since 2018-19 which is more than any other player on this list.

4. Gerard Moreno – 76 goals

During the same summer that Ronaldo joined Juventus, Moreno made the switch to Villarreal and he’s not looked back since.

The 32-year-old is still scoring goals for the Yellow Submarine as he’s averaged 0.44 goals per game over the last six years in Spain.

=2. Iago Aspas – 91 goals

The nippy Spanish forward has come a long way since being dubbed as a Liverpool flop back in 2013–14.

Aapas has been on the books at Celta Vigo since the summer of 2015 and he’s scored a plethora of goals for the club during that time.

Since 2018, he’s hit the back of the net on 91 occasions in La Liga, averaging a goal every 198.4 minutes during that time.

=2. Lionel Messi – 91 goals

Of all the players on this list, Messi boasts by far the best goals-to-game ratio.

From 2018 to 2021, Messi scored 91 league goals in just 102 appearances for Barcelona. That’s an insane average of 0.89 goals per game whilst simultaneously averaging 0.41 assists per game.

To be second in this list while only playing in half of the full seasons in the timeframe is testament to his greatness. He’s the outright top scorer in La Liga history with 474 goals – a record that won’t be surpassed anytime soon.

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1. Karim Benzema – 111 goals

Following Ronaldo’s departure from Real Madrid, Benzema immediately took on the mantle as the club’s talisman.

Coincidentally, as soon as Ronaldo had left, Benzema’s goalscoring numbers shot up. During the nine years he spent with CR7, the Frenchman averaged 14 league goals per season whereas he averaged 22 goals in the years after Ronaldo had left.

In total, he scored 111 league goals in 163 appearances after Ronaldo moved to Juventus which is more than any player in La Liga has managed during that timeframe.