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#3 Memphis Depay - 8 goals
In the summer of 2021, Barcelona started thinking of a contingency plan. They wanted to bring in a player who could keep the team afloat in the absence of the great Lionel Messi. Memphis Depay, who scored 20 goals in Ligue 1 in the 2020-21 season, emerged as a practical option.
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The Netherlands international fired a blank in the La Liga opener, but his overall involvement was appreciated. He has scored eight goals and provided two assists in La Liga so far, emerging as the team’s leading goalscorer.
Depay is currently nursing a hamstring injury and could miss a couple of matches when football resumes in Spain in 2022.
#2 Antoine Griezmann - 15 goals
Antoine Griezmann was supposed to be one of Barcelona’s standout performers, the one to take the baton from Lionel Messi. Impressed by his spell with Atletico Madrid, the Catalan giants chose to break the bank in 2019, signing their man for €120 million.
Griezmann showed flashes of his best self right away, but what followed was nothing short of a nightmare.
The 2018 World Cup winner struggled to combine with Lionel Messi and was thoroughly under-utilised by Ronald Koeman. To top it off, his finishing in itself was wayward, which kept him from justifying his sky-high price tag.
Following a disappointing two-season spell at the Camp Nou, he moved back to Atletico Madrid in the summer of 2021 in an initial loan deal.
In 2021, Griezmann played 32 games for Barcelona in all competitions, scoring 15 goals. The goal-tally in itself is not the worst, but the Blaugrana couldn’t afford to keep paying his sky-high salary without getting consistent returns.
#1 Lionel Messi - 28 goals
Lionel Messi bid Barcelona adieu in August 2021, joining Ligue 1 giants PSG for free. The Catalan outfit were never going to replace their record goalscorer, but the club’s state has been poorer than anyone could have ever imagined.
Despite not kicking a single ball for Barcelona in four months, Lionel Messi remains their top goalscorer of the year with 28 goals. The Argentine started the year on the front foot, scoring 12 goals in the first nine La Liga games he participated in. Messi added 11 more to his tally over the next 12 La Liga games.
The Argentina skipper scored three in the Copa del Rey, including a brace in the final, and two more in the Champions League Round of 16.
