Lionel Messi Backed to Beat Cristiano Ronaldo to Pichichi in Marca Fan Vote

The race for the top scorer gong in La Liga has taken on increased significance in the era of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo. This season, fans of Spanish football’s top flight think the former will have the edge over his great rival.

That’s according to a poll run by Marca.com of circa 14,000 supporters. It’s noted that 46 per cent of the voters opted for Messi to win the coveted Pichichi, while 39 per cent feel as though Ronaldo will have the edge in the goalscoring stakes.

Here’s how the top scorer standings finished up in 2014-15, per ESPN FC:

RANK	PLAYER	CLUB	GOALS
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	48
2	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	43
=3	Antoine Griezmann	Atletico Madrid	22
=3	Neymar	Barcelona	22
5	Carlos Bacca	Sevilla FC	20

It’s an award that has been handed out to one of the pair in each of the last six seasons. Ronaldo has won it at the end of the two previous campaigns, as well as the 2010-11 season. Messi first won the gong after the 2009-10 term before two consecutive years sandwiched by the Real Madrid man’s first victory, per ESPN FC.

Bleacher Report's Sam Tighe took a look at how the battle between Messi and Ronaldo is likely to play out in 2015-16:

As we can see here courtesy of WhoScored.com, in terms of goals and assists, the two icons are well out ahead of the rest:

In the same aforementioned poll the Barcelona man also came out on top when supporters were asked to predict the 2015-16 Player of the Year. Ronaldo trailed by an even bigger margin this time, with his 23 per cent of the vote a long way back from Messi’s 61 per cent.

Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images

It’s almost taken as a given that these two will win the individual awards, but they’ll each have to up their game from Week 1 to stave off competition.

Messi missed a penalty for the Blaugrana against Athletic Club, but his blushes were spared thanks to a Luis Suarez winner. Meanwhile, Ronaldo was ineffective in Los Blancos’ disappointing 0-0 draw against newly-promoted Sporting Gijon.

However, as we can see here courtesy of ESPN Stats & Info, it was a rare phenomenon to see both men share equally disappointing weekends:

The Pichichi award has commanded a special gravitas in the modern game, especially among supporters of these two great clubs and lovers of these iconic players. But while it will be a source of pride for both Messi and Ronaldo to win this award come the end of the campaign, team honours should be the main focus for the pair.

At this juncture, it’s a flip of a coin to say who will come out on top in the individual stakes. Ronaldo looks as though he may be used as an orthodox centre-forward by new manager Rafa Benitez and that should allow him to facilitate more goalscoring opportunities. But writing off the magisterial Messi would be a little naive given the impeccable standards he’s set in 2015.