With the La Liga season officially over, it’s time to consider the contributions of aruably the best collection of players on the planet and see who deserves to be known as the best player in La Liga this year, in The18’s esteemed eyes.
This article only takes into account La Liga action. So, for instance, Antoine Griezmann’s ice cold goal against Bayern Munich counts for nothing here. Without any further ado, let’s get started.
La Liga Player Of The Year
All statistics taken from Transfermarkt.
1. Luis Suarez
Photo: @Squawka | Twitter
Simply put, Suarez was untouchable this year. After a somewhat slow start that coincided with Lionel Messi being injured and Neymar hitting peak form, Suarez came back to absolutely torch the league. The numbers speak for themselves: 40 goals and 19 assists in 35 games.
More impressive than his seasonal totals is his production during Barcelona’s last 5 games. After losing to Real Madrid in early April, Barcelona had a three game losing streak that put thei La Liga title bid at serious risk. Suarez stepped up and made sure that the risk escalated no futher, scoring a ridiculous 14 goals in those last 5 matches. Big players make big plays in big games.
2. Antoine Griezmann
Photo: @SquawkaNews | Twitter
The cutting edge of a team that values defense above all else, it is hard to overstate how much Atletico Madrid needs Antoine Griezmann and how much he stepped up to the challenge time and time again. Atletico Madrid are not set up to manufacture chance after chance the way Real Madrid and Barcelona are, yet Griezmann still managed to produce.
Griezmann scored 22 of Atletico’s 63 goals (35 percent), that’s the highest share of goals within a team of any player on this list besides Luis Suarez (35 percent, again showing why he’s number one). He scored one winner against Real Madrid, assisted another in the reverse fixture, and had six total assists for good measure.
3. Lionel Messi
Photo: @messi10stats | Twitter
Even in a season that got off to a slow start with only three goals and two assists in Barcelona’s fist 11 games, Messi still managed to string together a run of games that were nothing less than sensational. After coming back from a knee ligament injury in the fall and until Barcelona’s stumble inducing loss to Madrid in early April, Messi scored 19 goals in 19 games and added 10 assists.
He was the key player in a stretch from Barcelona that had the entire world ready to crown them the greatest team of all time, but then that aforementioned stumble happened and Messi simply didn’t step up the way Suarez did. Messi “only” contributed 4 goals and 6 assists in Barca’s last eight matches.
4. Cristiano Ronaldo
Photo: @Squawka | Twitter
This season showed that Ronaldo is closer to finishing his transition from winger to goal poacher than ever before. Aside from a late season reversion to his ball dominating ways of yesteryear, Ronaldo touched the ball less, dribbled less and ran less than the fleet footed winger he used to be.
But he didn’t stop scoring. 35 goals and 11 assists in 36 games is nothing short of world class, and depicts the kind of production we can continue to expect from him in the future as his body becomes less athletic than it was. Although, that’s a little like saying a Ferrari is a step down from a Bugatti.
Aside from an El Clasico game winner in April that sparked a run by Real Madrid and a slump by Barcelona that almost saw his Madrid side take the La Liga title, he just didn’t affect this season enough.
5. Jan Oblak
Photo: @ChampionsLeague | Twitter
Jan Oblak started every single match for the team sporting the best defense in the world. At times it seemed as if it would take a biblical effort to score against Atletico Madrid, and Oblok was the final hurdle a striker had to face. He made sure few passed him. He kept 10 more clean sheets (24) than games in which he conceded; he gave up less than half a goal a game.
Some thought Atletico would have a hard time replacing Thibaut Courtois when he left. Those people were wrong.
6. Keylor Navas
Photo: @jlauratr | Twitter
In a season in which Real Madrid’s defense often looked unorganized, bordering on lost, Keylor Navas was a stabilizing presence that saved Real Madrid’s blushes on multiple occasions.
He conceded less than a goal a game (28 in 34 matches) and kept 13 clean sheets. Real Madrid owe a certain fax machine a “thank you” in my opinion.
7. Neymar
Photo: @MessiMinutes | Twitter
Neymar’s 15/16 campaign was a tale of two halves. In the early season absence of Messi Neymar seemed destined to be Barcelona’s stand out performer for the year. He scored 11 goals to Suarez’ nine before Messi’s return from injury, including this gem against Villareal:
He went on to score 15 goals and provide 10 assists in Barcelona’s first 19 games, but then fell off in the second half of the season. Struggling for form but still scoring because Barcelona were just that rampant at times, he only had nine goals and eight assists in Barcelona’s last 19 games, including only three in the critical last five games.
8. Gareth Bale
Photo: @FootballPointer | Twitter
When he played, Gareth Bale was incredibly important to Real Madrid, and at no time was this more apparent than the end of season surge for the La Liga title. All three of Bale, Karim Benzema, and Cristiano Ronaldo missed games during the last 8 weeks of the season, but it was Bale who stepped up when Ronaldo went down and lead Madrid to important wins over Rayo Vallecano and Real Sociedad.
Overall Bale scored 19 goals and added 11 assists in 24 matches, but the fact that he missed 14 matches is an critical hit against his campaign.
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