Ranking the 5 best European Golden Boot-winning seasons in football history

#3 Luis Suarez: 2015-16

Luis Suarez bagged 14 goals in the last five league games of the 2015-16 season

Barcelona were on the verge of losing their lead at the top of the La Liga table following a run of poor results shortly after entering 2016. However, Luis Suarez stepped up at crucial moments and led the Catalans to claim the title.

The Uruguayan began the show by scoring four goals each in back-to-back games against Deportivo de la Coruna and Sporting Gijon on Matchday 34 and 35, respectively. He then contributed six more goals in the next three games to ensure the Blaugrana won the title with 91 points, just one point above arch-rivals Real Madrid.

More interestingly, Suarez beat both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to emerge as the league's top scorer with 40 goals to his name in 35 games.

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#2 Cristiano Ronaldo: 2014-15

Cristiano Ronaldo bagged an impressive 48 goals for Real Madrid in the 2014-15 season

Before Luis Suarez's heroics in the 2015-16 campaign, Cristiano Ronaldo took Spanish football by storm with his amazing goalscoring exploits for Real Madrid in 2014-15. Despite the fact that his club had an underwhelming outing that season, the Portuguese thrived individually.

Ronaldo ended the campaign with the highest number of goals in the Spanish top flight and across European domestic leagues. He recorded a whopping 48 goals and 17 assists to his name in 35 games, which was enough to earn him both the La Liga and European Golden Boots.

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#1 Lionel Messi: 2011-12

Lionel Messi's European Golden Boot triumph in the 2011-12 campaign is arguably the most iconic one in history

What Lionel Messi did during the 2011-12 campaign is simply unbelievable. The Argentine took goalscoring to another level, bagging a whopping 50 goals and 19 assists for Barcelona in 37 La Liga games. With that, he set the record for the highest number of goals ever scored in a top European league in a single campaign.

Apart from winning both the Liga and European Golden Boots, Lionel Messi also reached many fantastic milestones during that year. One of his most notable feats is his record for the most goals ever scored across all competitions (73).

The forward also set the record for the highest number of goals scored by any player in a calendar year, as he finished the year with a whopping 91 goals. In the process, he broke Gerd Muller's record of 85 goals in a calendar year.

To top it off, he also won multiple trophies that season, including the Champions League, La Liga, and the Spanish Cup.