Until this month, no Barcelona player had ever been awarded the La Liga player of the month award. Ever. Not one. Not Lionel Messi. Not Andres Iniesta. Not Luis Suarez.
In the 20 months of the awards existence, six awards have gone to Athletico Madrid players, while the likes of Eibar (one), Real Sociedad (three), Celta Vigo (three), Levante (one), and Rayo Vallecano (one) have all had players awarded before Barcelona. Likely winners from Real Madrid and Sevilla have also had five awards between them.
No player has won it more than twice, with Ronaldo, Nolito, Diego Godin, Antoine Griezmann, and Carlos Vela all winning on two occasions.
Neymar's win ends a strange stat that somehow saw Messi and Suarez continuously overlooked in favour of players from weaker teams, despite Barcelona winning two of the last three La Liga titles, and sweeping all before them.
We count down the months until Messi is finally rewarded.
