The two players who have a superior goals-per-minute ratio to Lionel Messi in La Liga
Lionel Messi is unarguably one of the greatest players in football history, but two players have a greater goals-per-minute ratio in La Liga than the Barcelona legend.
Messi notched 474 goals in 520 appearances for Barca between 2004 and 2021, scoring at a rate of one goal every 89 minutes – and we’re not even counting the 216 assists he provided too.
But we’ve crunched the numbers to reveal the two La Liga players with a superior goals-per-minute ratio than the great Argentinian.
Cristiano Ronaldo
You knew Ronaldo would be here, didn’t you?
After joining Real Madrid in 2009, the Portuguese forward scored an astonishing 311 goals in 292 La Liga matches. That’s a goal every 81 minutes for the mathematically challenged among us.
It’s this super-human record that not only inflated Ronaldo’s ego to the size of a small planet, but it created the most compelling player rivalry perhaps seen in any sport as both he and Messi pushed each other to greatness.
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Isidro Langara
You’d be forgiven for not having heard of Langara, a forward who played for Real Oviedo in the 1930s and 1940s. Allow us to lessen your ignorance.
The striker was the figurehead of the celebrated Delantera Electrica (‘The electric forwards’) that dazzled Spanish football before the Civil War broke out.
Langara was the winner of the Pichichi Trophy in the three seasons before the conflict, with 27 goals in 1933–34, 26 goals in 1934–35 and 28 goals in 1935–36.
He escaped to Latin America, spending time touring Cuba, Mexico and Argentina with the Basque National team after Bilbao fell to Franco’s troops in 1937.
But Langara did return to Oviedo almost 10 years later, scoring 18 goals in the 1946-47 campaign and finishing his career with a total of 105 goals in 88 La Liga matches – which is a goal every 74 minutes.
The forward died in 1992 and his La Liga goal ratio remains unsurpassed – even by Messi or Ronaldo.