Lionel Messi couldn’t inspire Barcelona to a third straight La Liga title but clinched a record seventh Pichichi award for scoring the most goals in this La Liga season. Messi scored 25 league goals this season and also assisted 21 more making him the most productive player in La Liga 2019-20. But despite his individual brilliance, the Argentine failed to guide Barcelona to the league title despite leading Real Madrid by two points with 11 rounds remaining when the league resumed last month. Real Madrid clinched the title and lifted their 34th La Liga trophy with one game remaining. Lionel Messi Voted Second Best Footballer in La Liga 2019–20; Karim Benzema Takes Top Spot.

Messi broke quite a number of records on his way to a record seventh Pichichi trophy. This is the fourth successive season that Messi has finished as the highest goal scorer in La Liga. Karim Benzema, who finished second in the goalscoring charts, ended the campaign four goals behind despite playing four games more than the Argentine. Lionel Messi Voted as World's Best by Bundesliga Players, Jurgen Klopp Best Manager.

Messi also ended the La Liga 2019-20 campaign with at least 10 assists more than the next best Mikel Oyarzabal of Real Sociedad, who had 11 assists. Take a look at some records created by Lionel Messi this La Liga 2019-20 campaign.

Lionel Messi Records in La Liga 2019-20

25 Goals

Messi finished La Liga 2019-20 with 25 goals from 33 games and was the highest goalscorer in this La Liga season. He was awarded the Pichichi Trophy, awarded to the player with most goals in a single La Liga campaign, or golden boot for the feat.

7 Pichichi Trophies

The 33-year-old overtook former Spain and Athletic Bilbao legend, Telmo Zarra, for the most number of Pichichi trophies won. Messi was tied with Zarra on six trophies prior to the start of this campaign. But has now overtaken him to become the player with most Pichichi trophies in Spanish football. This was also Messi’s fourth consecutive Pichichi trophy.

21 Assists

Messi overtook former Barcelona teammate Xavi as the player with most assists in a single La Liga season. Xavi had assisted 20 times in 2008-09 and held the record for most single-season assists since then. Messi equalled his record against Real Valladolid and broke it in Barcelona’s final La Liga match against Alaves.

25 Goals, 21 Assists

Messi is the first player ever in La Liga history to score and assist more than 20 goals each in a single season. No player before him has scored more than 20 goals and also complement it with more than 20 assists in one La Liga campaign. The Argentine is also the only footballer since Thierry Henry, for Arsenal in 2002-03, to score 20 and assists 20 goals each in one season. Henry had scored 24 goals and assisted 20 goals for the Gunners in 200-03.

25 Goals

This was the first time since 2015-16 that Messi failed to score 30 goals in a La Liga season. He had netted 26 times in 2015-16. Only eight times in his 16 years at Barcelona have Messi failed to breach the 30-league goals mark.

3 Hat-Tricks

Only four hat-tricks were scored this La Liga season and Messi scored three of them. His first was against Celta Vigo in a 4-1 win on November. The second came in a 5-2 Barcelona victory against Mallorca while his final hat-trick in this La Liga season came against Eibar on February with Barcelona winning 5-0. Joaquin was the only other hat-trick scorer in this La Liga campaign.

It certainly wasn’t his best season, but Messi still scripted a number of records to his name. During the course of the season, he had also become only the seventh footballer in history to score more than 700 senior career goals. The Argentine also finished the season with most free-kick goals and goalscoring chances created. Messi will next be in action when Barcelona host Napoli in the second leg of Champions League round of 16 match.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 21, 2020 08:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).