Messi has been La Liga’s top scorer eight times, winning the Pichichi Trophy in 2009–10, 2011–12, 2012–13, and every season from 2016–17 through 2020–21.
The award is presented by Spanish sports newspaper Marca and is named after Rafael “Pichichi” Moreno, an early Athletic Bilbao scoring star. Messi’s eight wins are the most in the competition’s history, ahead of Telmo Zarra’s six.
His winning seasons included extraordinary totals: 50 goals in 2011–12, 46 in 2012–13, and 37 in 2016–17. His final Pichichi came in 2020–21, when he scored 30 league goals for Barcelona.
A common mix-up is counting seven wins, because Messi had won seven by 2019–20. His eighth arrived in his last La Liga season. The Pichichi is also based on Marca’s scoring records, which can occasionally differ from official league statistics.