Barca Are Champions!

It took Barcelona just 11 minutes to take the lead against Deportivo back in April, their familiar talisman wheeling away in celebration after a typically crafty finish to be mobbed by his team-mates. The Catalans had endured their biggest slump in years, picking up one point from a possible 12 and watching as their stranglehold on the title loosened. But it was not Lionel Messi who came to the rescue.


As has been the case increasingly often this season, it was Luis Suarez who stole the headlines and got Barca back on track. Four goals in the drubbing of Depor, seven more in the three games that preceded Saturday's finale, and crisis averted. For so long Barca have looked to just one man to bail them out and provide inspiration. Now they have a second superstar operating on an otherworldly level.

That Suarez-led resurgence proved vital in reasserting Barca's dominant swagger, and he finished the job in Granada to leave Real Madrid broken-hearted. While Cristiano Ronaldo was suuu-ing pointlessly in La Coruna, Suarez was tapping in from close range. The points were virtually assured when he headed home Dani Alves' athletic cross minutes later, before he completed his hat-trick late on. With three instinctive flashes, the title had been won.

Suarez’s form this season has been quite extraordinary, even in spite of the sense of normality Ronaldo and Messi’s stunning scoring records have bestowed on such feats. The Uruguayan has outscored five teams in La Liga and netted 59 goals in all competitions, exceeding his own personal best tally of 55 while still at Ajax six years ago - and that included goals for Uruguay. He is also the joint-leading assist-maker in La Liga, meaning no player in the top five leagues has contributed more goals.

He’s even done things the best two players in the world have never managed, scoring four goals in back-to-back matches and having a hand in seven goals in a single La Liga match, the only player to do so in the 21st Century. Unless Atletico Madrid do something incredible, he will also be the first player to top both the goals and assists charts at the end of a Liga season.