It’s hard to find Spanish goal-scoring records held by anyone not named Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo – but they are out there! Take a look at the few historic achievements still up for grabs and how close either of our record-hoarding superstars are to setting them.
Most goals in a single La Liga match
Two players have scored 7 goals in a single La Liga match and neither is Ronaldo or Messi. Athletic Bilbao’s Agustin Sauto Arana did it against Barcelona in 1931 and Barca’s Laszlo Kubala replicated the feat in 1952. Ronaldo has come closest, scoring 5 goals in a match twice, while Messi’s personal league best is 4 goals.
Most consecutive La Liga home matches with 1 goal
Messi holds the Spanish records for consecutive league games (21) and away games (13) with at least one goal, both of which he set in the 2012/13 season. But he’s missing the record for home games. That one still belongs to Mariano Martin, who scored in 18 straight home games for Barcelona in 1942/43.
Most consecutive La Liga hat tricks
Messi and Ronaldo hold the joint-record for most hat tricks in a single season with 8, yet neither has ever scored three in a row like Real Oviedo’s Isidro Langara did in 1935. Both Messi and Ronaldo have scored back-to-back hat tricks three separate times, so if anyone is to ever replicate Langara’s feat, it’s one of these two.
Most consecutive four-goal La Liga games
Only one person has ever scored four goals in back-to-back games: Messi’s teammate Luis Suarez. You might remember. It only happened a few months ago, with 4 goals each against Sporting Gijon and Deportivo La Coruna in April. Ronaldo has come painfully close to matching Suarez, though, scoring 4 and 3 goals in a two-game stretch two different times.
Most Pichichi trophies
La Liga's previous all-time scoring leader Telmo Zarra led the league in scoring six different times. Three other players won the Pichichi on five occasions: Alfredo Di Stefano, Quini and Hugo Sanchez. Messi and Ronaldo have each held that honor only three times, but Ronaldo (10 goals) and Messi (9) are currently leading the race this season.
Athletic Bilbao
Most career goals in one European top-5 league
Gerd Müller scored 365 Bundesliga goals in 15 seasons with Bayern Munich, a record that's stood since 1979 and was thought to be unbreakable … until Messi showed up. Messi is currently on 321 La Liga goals and projects to set the new all-time mark towards the end of next season.
Most career goals across Europe’s top-5 leagues
Tottenham and Chelsea legend Jimmy Greaves has 366 career top-flight goals (357 in England and 9 in Italy) and is thus just one ahead of Müller for most all-time. But like Müller, barring something catastrophic Greaves too will see his record topple soon. Ronaldo has 354 career league goals from his time at Real and Man United. Anyone care to bet against him scoring 13 more this season?
Fastest La Liga goal
A lot has to go right in order to score a goal almost immediately after kickoff, so Ronaldo or Messi would need a good chunk of fortune to ever come close to breaking Seydou Keita's 7.66-second goal against Almeria, set in 2014 in a Valencia shirt.
Fastest La Liga hat trick
David Villa holds this record, scoring three goals in just five minutes against Athletic Bilbao in 2006. Counting the amount of time it takes just to celebrate and restart between goals, it sounds almost impossible that anyone will ever top it. But if there’s a guy, it might be Ronaldo. CR7 once scored an 8-minute hat trick against Granada in 2015.
Fastest player to 50 and 100 La Liga goals
Isidro Langara set both marks, reaching 50 goals in his first 37 La Liga games and getting to 100 in 82 games. Ronaldo was the fastest to 150, 200 and 250 goals, though, while Messi is the only player with 300 La Liga goals. But: Ronaldo is sitting at 270 and closing in on that record as well.
Youngest La Liga goalscorer
Fabrice Olinga was 16 years old and 98 days when he scored for Malaga in 2012. It’ll be difficult for either Ronaldo or Messi to break this one.
