2024 La Liga Roundup: Title #36 for Real Madrid
Girona Surprises of the Season
Real Madrid Set Record Unbeaten Streak
It was another historic season for Alaves and more in our 2024 La Liga Roundup.
Bellingham Shines in Real Madrid Debut Season
In his first season at Real Madrid, Jude Bellingham scored 10 goals in his first 10 La Liga matches. It was one of the surprise La Liga stats of the season, as the Englishman had never reached the 10 goal mark in a full season in his fledgling career. He finished with 19 La Liga goals and led Real Madrid in scoring and goal contributions over Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo.
Granted, Vini was limited to 22 starts and scored an impressive 15 goals in those games. Vini has cemented his status as one of the best players in the world, while Rodrygo, Joselu and Brahim Diaz were solid alternate scoring options in Real’s title-winning season.
Winning the league with just one loss is an incredible achievement for Carlo Ancelotti and Real Madrid, as they dealt with bad injury luck. Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, defenders Eder Militao and David Alaba tore their ACLs, meaning Real had to use their depth this season. Andriy Lunin did an excellent job deputizing at keeper, as Real were 16-5-0 in the games he started.
Teenage sensation Arda Guler also got opportunities towards the end of the season and scored six goals in just 377 minutes of play. While legends Nacho and Toni Kroos are leaving at the end of the season, Real have a seemingly endless supply of talent to restock. Kylian Mbappe is likely ing in the Summer and Brazilian sensation Endrick will follow.
Girona, Villarreal, Alaves Headline Top Half
Barcelona couldn’t defend their title but La Liga’s second place team certainly put up a respectable points total. As Robert Lewandowski scored 19 goals, Barcelona went 26-7-5 and put up 85 points. Xavi won’t be returning as head coach next season but he integrated some exciting young players during his tenure, like Pedri, Gavi, Fermin Lopez, Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsi.
Our 2024 La Liga Roundup would be remiss without mentioning Girona’s campaign. Sure, they have financial backing from the Man City d City Group, but no one expected the Catalan side to gain 32 more points than they did last season. Artem Dovbyk was one of the gs of the season, as the La Liga’s Team of the Season.
Champions League next season, nonetheless. Antoine Griezmann had another great season under Diego Simeone.
Europa League next season by Basque rivals Real Sociedad, who ended the season in sixth.
Real Betis (7th) grabbed the last European spot, as they’ll be playing in the UEFA Europa Conference League next season. Villarreal’s La Liga scores were much improved after they appointed Marcelino as they lost just two of their last 18 matches.
To round out the top half, Valencia finished in ninth and Alaves snagged tenth place with the league’s smallest budget. Alaves had a budget 24 times smaller than Atletico Madrid’s but they were just 11 points away from a European berth.
Cadiz, Almeria, Granada Going Down
Just seven points separated La Liga’s 11th-placed and 17th-placed teams. Osasuna (11th) completed the season with 45 points and it was a bittersweet ending for the 2023 Osasuna to their first European berth for 16 years in 2022-23 but he left the club at the end of the campaign.
Las Palmas were flirting with a European place for a while but the newly-promoted club didn’t win any of their last 14 games.
Granada (20th) didn’t put up much of a fight, as the relegated pair picked up just 21 points each.
La Liga Awards
Artem Dovbyk scored a hat trick in the season finale to clinch the Pichichi (Golden Boot) Award. Dovbyk scored 24 times in his first season in Champions League football. Meanwhile, Athletic Club’s Unai Simon kept 16 clean sheets, which led the league, but there’s no official Golden Glove.
The official La Liga awards ceremony will be held later tonight and here are the nominees:
La Liga Player of the Year Award:
- Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Take Kubo (Villarreal).
Our Pick: Jude Bellingham
La Liga Best U23 Player Award:
- Lamine Yamal (FC Barcelona), Javi Guerra (Valencia CF), Rodrygo (Real Madrid), Yan Couto (Girona FC), Savio (Girona FC), Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis), Pau Cubarsí (FC Barcelona), Miguel Gutiérrez (Girona FC), Nico Williams (Athletic Club) and Take Kubo (Real Sociedad)
Our Pick: Savio
La Liga Best Coach Award:
- Carlo Ancelotti (Real Madrid), Míchel (Girona FC), Diego Simeone (Atlético Madrid), Ernesto Valverde (Athletic Club) and Marcelino (Villarreal CF)
Our Pick: Míchel
Sneak Peek at 2024-25
We’ll end our 2024 La Liga Roundup with a quick look at the outright odds for the 2024-25 season. Real Madrid show -200 odds to defend their title, which isn’t a surprise given they’re set to add Mbappe to an all-world attack. Barcelona (+350) and Atletico Madrid (+800) are the only other teams with shorter than +2000 odds.
