Messi vs Suarez: A True Race For Pichichi Since Ronaldo Departure

Lionel Messi faces a recent true test to the Pichichi as former teammate, Luis Suarez leads the Spanish La Liga golden boot race with Atletico Madrid leading the table with 5 points and two games at hand.

The South American duo were part of the MSN trident that conquered Europe in 2014-15 season winning a continental treble with great precision and lethal attacks.

After the departure of Neymar, Messi and Suarez remained and scored tremendously for Barcelona -- although suffering great losses in the Champions League -- first with Roma comeback, Anfield comeback and an emphatic 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich.

READ ALSO: Luis Suarez: Barca Gift Atleti The La Liga Trophy

Domestically though, they remain dominant winning 3 La Liga and 3 Copa del Rey.

After the 8-2 thrashing at Bayern coupled with a trophyless season in the 2019-20 season, Suarez was deemed an excess at Barcelona but unfortunately, he was gifted to Atletico Madrid.

Suarez 34, a year older than Messi has shown he still has goals in him scoring a cumulative 16 goals in all competitions for Rojiblancos.

In La Liga, he has scored 16 goals while Messi is behind him at 15 goals.

Suarez won the Pichichi in 2015-16 season with 40 goals in 35 games beating all long-playing footballers in the Spanish top-flight -- Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar (also a teammate), Benzema, Griezmann and teammate Messi.

The difference between the 2015 race and now is that both players are now adversary and not teammates -- the La Liga trophy might be beyond Messi but the 6-time Balon d'Or winner will not allow his friend a stroll to the pichichi.

There are also some new names in the top 5 with all eyes on the golden boot:

Luis Suarez - Atletico Madrid 16 goals

Lionel Messi - Barcelona 15 goals

En-Neysri - Sevilla 13 goals

Gerard Moreno - Villarreal 13 goals

Karim Benzema - Real Madrid 12 goals

A Real Race

The departure of Messi's eternal rival, Cristiano Ronaldo signifies the beginning of the Argentine's monopoly of the Spanish golden boot -- though he has been winning it even while the Portuguese was in Spain.

Messi began he dominance of the boot in 2009-10 season winning it with 34 goals in 35 games, Ronaldo came in 2010-11 scoring the highest La Liga goal ever, then in a single season, winning the boot with 41 goals in 34 games.

Messi bounced back with a record-breaking 50 goals in 2011-12 season, the highest ever till now in the Spanish La Liga and arguably in Europe, in a league, for a single season,

The Argentine went on a long break across 3 seasons after 2012-13 where he won the boot -- between 2013-16 the boot was shared between Ronaldo (2) and Suarez (1).

Lionel Messi completed his return to the top of the La Liga scoring chart in 2016-17 and has won it for 4 years in a row with no contest.

When Ronaldo left Madrid in the summer of 2018, it completed a 9-year spell in Spain with Messi -- winning the golden boot just thrice, Suarez once and Messi claimed it 5 times.

It was not much of a race even during Ronaldo's 9-year period in Spain with Messi always the favourite.

Suarez is giving the Argentine a new challenge now as he has shown him he can win the boot even while playing in the same team -- now he wants to prove he can not do it without his help.