Some of the biggest guns in world football will be looking for collective glory with their teams in this edition of La Liga EA Sports... but also to make their mark as the best and top scorer of the competition.
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In a league like Spain's, which tends to have some of the world's greatest strikers, the award for the competition's top scorer is never anecdotal. Often the winning team, if it is by a large margin, seeks to favour its top scorer to round off the party.
On other occasions, it is one of the pursuers who wants to sweeten the end of a bitter season with an individual award. The latter was the case with the latest winner of the Pichichi trophy, Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappé, who scored nine goals in the last five rounds to snatch the award from Barcelona champion Robert Lewandowski.
The Polish striker looked on course to be the top scorer but failed to score in La Liga between the end of March and the last matchday, when he bagged a brace at San Mamés against Athletic Club. Lewandowski suffered an injury during part of that time, which dampened his chances of capping a perfect domestic season.
Favourites to be top scorer in La Liga 25/26
There is still a long way to go before the end of the summer transfer window for La Liga EA Sports, but the favourites to finish the upcoming season as top scorer are already beginning to emerge. Bookmakers have many of the usual names among the favourites and are predicting another head-to-head between Real Madrid's French striker and Barcelona's Pole, two of the biggest goalscoring machines in world football.
Mbappé, the big favourite to repeat
Kylian Mbappé is the overwhelming favourite to win the EA Sports La Liga top scorer trophy once again. Despite an inconsistent start to the season, the Frenchman proved to be an extremely lethal attacker, and this year he will start fully adapted to the La Liga and the Spanish league, so there is every reason to believe that he will surpass his numbers from the last. Perhaps the fact that his season was extended at the Club World Cup, in which he played only a few minutes due to health problems, could take its toll on the explosive Merengue striker's physique.
Bookmaker bet365 has Mbappé as favourite to be La Liga's top scorer for the second year in a row at 4/5.
Lewandowski will always be among the candidates
Barça's Polish striker was the 'pichichi' (top scorer) of the 2022/23 season, his first in La Liga, with 23 goals, but his numbers dropped in the following campaign (19). This year, Lewandowski was back to his best with Flick and had an excellent first half of the season, scoring 16 goals. As with his first campaign at Barcelona, his numbers dropped in the second half of the season, and the aforementioned injury prevented him from trying to fight with Mbappé for the Pichichi. Despite the fact that Lewandowski will turn 37 in August, bet365 puts him as the second biggest contender, offering odds of 11/8 on him to be the league's top scorer.
Sorloth and Raphinha lead the pack
Pending the completion of the summer transfer window, Atlético Madrid's Norwegian striker Alexander Sorloth is tied with Culé's Raphinha as the third favourite to be the league's 'pichichi', although already a long way behind the top two.
The Nordic player has proved to be an explosive goalscorer, especially in the latter stages of seasons, and came within a whisker of the award in the 23/24 when Artem Dovbyk narrowly pipped him. His minutes at Atleti, and the presence of big-name strikers such as Julián Álvarez in the team, may work against him.
For his part, Barça's Brazilian winger has had a tremendous season, although his level dropped slightly towards the end. If he maintains his form this season, he could well be among the candidates, although Barcelona's attack has plenty of penalty-takers, and depth in Marcus Rashford has also arrived to add to the winger rotation. Both Sorloth and Raphinha to be the 'pichichi' is down at 10/1 at bet365.
Behind them come the aforementioned Julián Álvarez (16/1), Ante Budimir (16/1), Gonzalo García (22/1), Ferran Torres (33/1), Oihan Sancet (33/1), Lamine Yamal (33/1), Borja Iglesias (40/1) and Vinícius Júnior (40/1).