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What is the Pichichi Trophy and how is it decided?

The Pichichi Trophy is awarded to the player with the most goals in a single La Liga season, based solely on league goals: goals in the Copa del Rey or in European matches don't count. The award is named after Rafael Moreno Aranzadi, nicknamed "Pichichi," an Athletic Bilbao forward who made his name with his goalscoring in the early twentieth century and died at just 29 in 1922, before La Liga even existed as a league. Sports newspaper Marca only created the trophy in 1953, in his honour, and first awarded it for the 1952/53 season. Since then, the Pichichi has gone every season to the regular league's top scorer, with no official tiebreak based on, say, minutes played: if players are level on goals, the honour is simply shared. Because the race starts from zero every season and can shift week to week, there's no point naming a mid-season leader here, more on that further down this page. The rest of this page focuses on what's already confirmed: last season's winner and the names that dominate the trophy's history.

2025/26: Kylian Mbappe wins with 25 goals

The last confirmed Pichichi winner is Kylian Mbappe, who closed out the 2025/26 season with 25 league goals for Real Madrid. That made him the first Real Madrid player to win the trophy since the years when players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema dominated Spain's scoring charts, underlining how quickly Mbappe adapted to La Liga after his move to Spain. This figure is a completed, confirmed result from a full season, unlike a mid-season tally that can still go in any direction. Want to see how Mbappe is doing this season in the ongoing Pichichi race, or who might have overtaken him? Check our live page with current player statistics for the latest figures, matchday by matchday. This page itself deliberately builds on what's already confirmed: the 2025/26 season is over and the winner's name is settled for good, which is what sets this page apart from the weekly-changing current standings.

Lionel Messi: record holder with 8 Pichichi awards

Nobody has won the Pichichi Trophy more often than Lionel Messi, who claimed it eight times in total during his years at FC Barcelona. That makes him not only the most decorated top scorer in the award's history, but also, with 474 league goals in total, La Liga's all-time top scorer, well ahead of any other club icon in the competition's history. Messi didn't build that total in one exceptional season, but over more than a decade of sustained, high output at Barcelona, which makes both the Pichichi record and the overall goalscoring record all the more emphatic. Worth noting: this all relates to his time at Barcelona in La Liga, separate from his performances in other competitions or at other clubs afterwards. For anyone wondering how that record compares to the current generation: no active La Liga player comes close to this total, which alone shows how exceptionally long and consistently Messi performed at the top level. The Pichichi record of eight trophies and the goalscoring record of 474 goals both currently sit firmly with Messi.

Cristiano Ronaldo and the 50-goal season record

Cristiano Ronaldo, with three Pichichi trophies won during his years at Real Madrid, sits second on the historical list, behind Messi but ahead of most other names on this page. Ronaldo and Messi fought a direct battle for the Pichichi for years, making that period one of the strongest in the award's history. The record for most goals in a single La Liga season, though, doesn't belong to Ronaldo, but to Messi: 50 league goals in the 2011/12 season for Barcelona, a total nobody has come close to since, Ronaldo included. That distinction is worth drawing out, because the two records, most Pichichi trophies in total and most goals in a single season, cover different kinds of exceptional achievement: one is about years of consistency, the other about an absolute peak within a single season. Together, the duels between Messi and Ronaldo make up the period when the Pichichi Trophy drew the most global attention, even outside Spain.

Telmo Zarra, Hugo Sanchez and Alfredo Di Stefano

Before Messi and Ronaldo came to dominate the award, the Pichichi Trophy already had a rich history of its own legends. Telmo Zarra, like namesake Pichichi an Athletic Bilbao forward, won the very first official edition in 1952/53 and went on to add six trophies in total. His record of six Pichichis stood as the highest total in the award's history for nearly six decades, until Messi eventually surpassed it. Hugo Sanchez, the Mexican forward who made his name at Atletico Madrid and above all Real Madrid, won the trophy five times, four of them in a row between 1984/85 and 1987/88, a run that remains one of the most dominant spells in the award's history to this day. Alfredo Di Stefano, the Real Madrid legend from the 1950s, matched that total with five Pichichi trophies of his own during his time at the club. These names show that being La Liga's top scorer belonged to the sport decades before Messi and Ronaldo, and that the award itself has a history that goes back further than most fans realise.

Historical Pichichi honours list (multiple winners)

Why we don't name a mid-season leader here

This season's Pichichi race changes shape after every matchday, and that's exactly why this page deliberately sticks to confirmed, completed results: the 2025/26 winner and the historical record holders. Early in the season, a player who starts fast can briefly top the charts, only to stall for weeks through injury or a rest period, while another name breaks through right at that moment. Naming someone on this page as "current top scorer" could be outdated within a few matchdays, which would undermine the reliability of the whole page. Still want to know who's currently leading the Pichichi race? Our live page with player statistics shows that current standing, updated after every matchday, and our page on the La Liga standings gives the broader table context those goals sit within. Both pages are the right place for what's true today; this page stays the place for what's been true for years.

Betting on the top scorer

The history on this page shows that the Pichichi record is rare and built over the long term, while this season's trophy is decided fresh every year, right down to the final matchday. Want to back your own view on who scores the most this season? Available markets around the top scorer can include an outright bet on the Pichichi winner, alongside the usual 1X2 and goal markets per match. No analysis or statistic predicts the outcome with certainty, not even with the historical context on this page. Create an account with Napoleon Sports, download the app from the App Store or Google Play, and check out the current La Liga betting offer in the promotions section. Napoleon Sports holds a licence from the Belgian Gaming Commission. Through the app, you follow the Pichichi race anywhere, anytime, live, from the first to the last matchday, and place your bet from your smartphone at any time of day. Register today to get access to new welcome offers and seasonal promotions around La Liga. 21+ players only.

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