Monday 25 April 2016 15:24, UK
Cristiano Ronaldo is the current holder of the Pichichi and the European Golden Shoe but Luis Suarez's four-goal haul against Sporting Gijon has left the Real Madrid forward playing catch-up this season.
Suarez started Saturday one goal behind Ronaldo's tally of 31, but made the most of his rival's injury-enforced absence to take a three-goal lead by the end of the day.
So can Ronaldo strike back to overhaul the Uruguayan and defend his two individual titles? With just three La Liga games left until the end of the season, we take a look...
Suarez has hit a remarkable patch of form, scoring eight in four days against Deportivo La Coruna and Sporting respectively to take his total for the season to 34.
It has left his two Barcelona team-mates, Lionel Messi on 25 goals and Neymar on 23 goals, in his rear-view mirror, with Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema also on 23 goals.
The former Liverpool striker has an impressive 53 goals in 49 appearances in all competitions, and looking ahead to Barca's final league fixtures, he should have plenty more opportunities.
Luis Enrique's side play three of the league's bottom eight clubs - Granada in 17th, Espanyol in 15th and Real Betis in 13th. They hit four against Granada and Betis earlier this campaign, but were held 0-0 by their local rivals at the RCDE Stadium.
Suarez managed two goals across those three matches, and if he repeats the trick in the reverse fixtures, he will take his tally to 36 goals - one clear of the 35 Eredivisie goals he scored for Ajax in the 2009/10 season, his previous best mark.
As for Ronaldo, the Real Madrid forward has 47 goals in 44 appearances in all competitions for his club, including 12 in his last 11 in La Liga, but the three-time Pichichi winner faces a real battle to secure a fourth.
Real's run-in is slightly more difficult than Barca's, with 12th-placed Real Sociedad, ninth-placed Valencia and 14th-placed Deportivo La Coruna to come.
Ronaldo hit two in his previous league fixture against Real Sociedad, but failed to find the net against Valencia and Depor - although he'll be itching to face the latter after they conceded eight to Barca on Wednesday.
The concern for Ronaldo will be his fitness. The Portugal international is rarely injured, but was forced to sit Real's most recent game against Rayo Vallecano after picking up a hamstring strain against Villarreal.
Zinedine Zidane may look to manage his forward's minutes with a Champions League semi-final against Man City on the horizon, giving a further boost to Suarez's hopes.
And it's a similar situation in the race for the European Golden Shoe, where Ronaldo is bidding to become the first five-time winner.
There are two factors in play when deciding the Golden Shoe - goals and the UEFA coefficient ranking. The goals speak for themselves - you have to score quite a few and penalties count - but the league rankings are slightly trickier.
Essentially, each player's goal tally is multiplied by the ranking of the league they score in. The toughest leagues are given the highest rating of 2.0, the next are assigned a 1.5 rating and the final leagues are given 1.0.
The five leading contenders currently all play in a top five European league, but Suarez's recent eight-goal blast has lifted him into the lead here too, with Ronaldo and Benfica's Jonas tied on 31 goals.
Napoli's Gonzalo Higuain (30 goals) requires an exceptional finish to the season to challenge, but the Argentina international does have four games to do it, starting with Roma away on Monday.
Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski (27 goals) is even further behind, and with Champions League and German Cup concerns, is almost out of contention.
So unless Ronaldo finds a spectacular run of form - and you wouldn't put it past him - it looks like it's Suarez's to lose on both fronts.
