Lionel Messi looks on course to win a sixth European Golden Shoe award in his career and that's despite playing less games than any season since the 2008/09 season.
A typical Saturday evening for Lionel Messi is making headlines and last weekend was no different for the Barcelona forward. He started on the bench with the Catalan giants playing against Levante ahead of their Champions League semi final with Barcelona on Wednesday.
Not one to feel left out the 31 year old came on in the second half, scored the only goal of the game and confirmed Barcelona as champions of Spain once again.
The goal was Messi's 34th of the season in La Liga, and he has another 10 to his name in the Champions League, with three games of the league season still to go.
Advert
Not only is the Argentina striker the lead goalscorer in the league he also leads the way for the European Golden Shoe, which would be the sixth of his career.
That would be impressive enough but Messi has played less games this season than in the previous 10 years:
As well as injuries Messi has been used far more sparingly in La Liga in recent weeks. The title has been all but there's for several weeks and with Ernesto Valverde's team looking for another treble they've been able to use him less.
Advert
What's remarkable is no one else has ever even won more than four European Golden Shoes, with only Cristiano Ronaldo on four and no one else on more than two, and Messi could further extend his lead.
Messi's 34 goals put him on 68 points with only Kylian Mbappe, on 60 points, likely to catch him with PSG still having four games to play to Barca's three.
There will be more gold for the 10 time La Liga champion this year if his team can win the Champions League and Copa del Rey in the next month.
Advert
Should that happen then you'd expect Messi to right the wrongs of last year and win a sixth Ballon d'Or.
Featured Image Credit: PA