Cristiano Ronaldo is set to scoop the 2016 Ballon d'Or ahead of Lionel Messi, but the Barcelona man will have the last laugh in regard to hitting the back of the net, where he leads the world.
Bagging 50 times for Barcelona in all competitions in the past 12 months, following the brace against Osasuna, there's still two more competitive games in which to extend his tally.
Espanyol and Hercules, the latter in the Copa del Rey, await the Blaugrana and the Catalan derby will also allow the Argentine a chance to push away from Ronaldo in the Pichichi rankings, where he sits on 11 goals to the Real Madrid winger's 10.
Finishing the calendar year with a hat-trick would certainly be a symbolic task for Messi, who put three past Granada back in January, with the current season also providing trios against Celtic and Manchester City.
Luis Suarez certainly stole the limelight in the spring months as Barcelona took the league title and therefore it's no surprise that only the Uruguayan, on 46, can catch his teammate in the remaining weeks of 2016.
In addition, Messi has never gone below 38 goals in a single year since 2007, with the world record 78 his best back in 2012 and half centuries surpassed in 2010 and 2011, too.The Argentinian surpassed his rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who has been LaLiga top scorer until Saturday morning thanks to his ten goals.
However, the Real Madrid forward will not have his chance to get back his position until the end of the year, as he has not being called for Saturday's afternoon game against Deportivo de la Coruna and not going to play the next LaLiga game either due to the Club World Cup.
As a result, the biggest threats for Messi now could be both his teammate Luis Suarez, who scored ten, and Celta Vigo Iago Aspas, with nine goals.
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