1. Lionel Messi
The first winner of the CaughtOffside 50 was hardly going to be anyone else.
Another great season for the statisticians among us as he notched 60 goals in 50 games across all competitions to help Barcelona cruise to yet another La Liga title as well as claiming the European Golden Shoe and putting Argentina on the brink of qualifying for next summer’s World Cup.
Had he not fallen foul to a troublesome hamstring injury in the side’s Champions League semi final encounter against Bayern Munich he could well have surpassed the 73 goal haul he recorded just one season earlier, and he may well have also added to the side’s league title, which was the only trophy the club were able to get their hands on.
Plenty of personal records were smashed this year as he recorded the most goals ever in a calendar year, scoring in consecutive matches against every Liga team and claiming a fourth successive Ballon d’Or – all of which made this another personally successful season for the man Rosario.
There seems to be no stopping the 26-year-old, and expect him to feature highly in next year’s list too.
BARCELONA
Games: 50
Goals: 60
Assists: 20
ARGENTINA
Games: 12
Goals: 9
Assists: 2
HONOURS: La Liga