Luis Suarez Wins 2015-16 Pichichi Award: La Liga Goal Highlights, Reaction, More

Luis Suarez finished his first full season with Barcelona as the recipient of the Pichichi Award, the trophy for La Liga’s top scorer. The Uruguay international finished with 40 goals, beating Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona team-mate Lionel Messi to the top spot.

It marks the first time since 2009 someone other than Ronaldo or Messi has won the award, when Atletico Madrid's Diego Forlan scored 32 goals. Suarez added a hat-trick on Saturday in the win over Granada, clinching the Spanish title in the process, via Bleacher Report UK:

Per the club's official Twitter account, Suarez pointed at his team-mates as the reason for his success:

Suarez moved to Barcelona in the summer of 2014 but was forced to watch from the sidelines for two months as he was suspended for an incident during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

He quickly adapted to his new surroundings, however, finishing the season with 16 goals and 14 assists in La Liga, per WhoScored.com. He played a pivotal role in the Catalans’ treble-winning season, and most pundits predicted a big campaign from the former Liverpool man in the 2015-16 season.

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The 29-year-old didn’t disappoint, finding the net in the UEFA Super Cup against Sevilla and scoring the winner in Barcelona’s first match of the domestic league campaign against Athletic Bilbao. He continued his fine form in the weeks that followed and picked up his scoring rate following an injury to Messi.

He and Neymar carried the Blaugrana through a difficult stretch while Messi watched from the sidelines, and he bagged his first hat-trick of the season against Eibar on October 25. Here’s a look at the highlights from that match, via Matheus Fellype Almeida:

Those goals signalled the start of an eight-match scoring streak across all competitions, which came to an end in the 2-2 draw against Deportivo La Coruna.

More hat-tricks followed against Athletic Club and Celta Vigo, but his remarkable scoring pace would slow down in the following weeks, coinciding with Barcelona’s drop in form. He failed to find the net in losses against Real, Atletico Madrid and Valencia, and as he and his team-mates struggled, the Catalans’ massive lead in La Liga vanished.

The 8-0 win over Deportivo La Coruna proved to be a turning point, however, a match in which Suarez scored four goals. Here are the highlights of that contest, via GOKI:

He’d score four more in Barcelona’s next match, against Sporting Gijon, to all but wrap up the race for the Pichichi Award and keep the Blaugrana title dream on track. Three more goals followed in the next two matches, both wins, setting up Saturday’s title match against Granada.

Ahead of the match, he told reporters the award would be meaningless if Barcelona didn’t walk away with the title, via Sport: “But to be Pichichi, if we are not champions, means nothing.”

A quick brace in the first half all but secured the title, however, and he completed his hat-trick in the second half.

It marks Suarez’s third top-scorer’s title of his career, winning the Premier League Golden Boot with Liverpool in 2014 and the Eredivisie’s variant of the award in 2010 with Ajax.

Suarez is also the favourite to win this year’s European Golden Shoe, the award handed to the top scorer on the continent. He previously shared the award with Ronaldo after the 2013-14 campaign, when they both scored 31 goals.