2009–10 La Liga

The 2009–10 La Liga was the 79th season of La Liga since its establishment. Barcelona were the defending champions, having won their 19th La Liga title in the previous season. The campaign began on 29 August 2009, and concluded on 16 May 2010; all top-flight European leagues ended earlier than the previous season due to the impending 2010 FIFA World Cup.
A total of 20 teams contested the league, 17 of which already contested in the 2008–09 season, and three of which were promoted from the Segunda División. In addition, a new match ball – the Nike T90 Ascente – served as the official ball for all matches.
On 16 May 2010, Barcelona secured a second consecutive La Liga title, and twentieth league title overall, following a 4–0 home victory against Valladolid. Barcelona's Lionel Messi won the La Liga award for Best Player for a second straight season.
Real Madrid's 96 points made them the runners-up with the highest points total in the history of Europe's top five leagues, until this was surpassed by Liverpool's 97 points in the 2018–19 Premier League.

Promotion and relegation

Teams promoted from 2008–09 Segunda División

Teams relegated to 2009–10 Segunda División

Team information

Stadia and locations

Team	Club home city	Venue	Capacity
Almería	Almería	Estadio del Mediterráneo	22,000
Athletic Bilbao	Bilbao	San Mamés	39,750
Atlético Madrid	Madrid	Vicente Calderón	54,851
Barcelona	Barcelona	Camp Nou	98,772
Deportivo La Coruña	A Coruña	Riazor	34,600
Espanyol	Barcelona	Estadi Cornellà-El Prat	40,500
Getafe	Getafe	Coliseum Alfonso Pérez	17,700
Málaga	Málaga	La Rosaleda	28,963
Mallorca	Palma de Mallorca	ONO Estadi	23,142
Osasuna	Pamplona	Estadio Reyno de Navarra	19,800
Racing Santander	Santander	El Sardinero	22,271
Real Madrid	Madrid	Santiago Bernabéu	80,354
Sevilla	Sevilla	Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán	48,649
Sporting	Gijón	El Molinón	25,885
Tenerife	Santa Cruz de Tenerife	Heliodoro Rodríguez López	24,000
Valencia	Valencia	Mestalla	55,000
Valladolid	Valladolid	Estadio José Zorrilla	26,512
Villarreal	Vila-real	El Madrigal	25,000
Xerez	Jerez de la Frontera	Chapín	20,523
Zaragoza	Zaragoza	La Romareda	34,596

Personnel and sponsoring

Team

Chairman

Head Coach

Kit manufacturer

Shirt sponsor

Shorts sponsor

Socks sponsor

Almería

League table

Awards

La Liga Awards

La Liga's governing body, the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional, honoured the competition's best players and coach with the La Liga Awards.

Award

Recipient

Best Player

Pichichi Trophy

The Pichichi Trophy is awarded to the player who scores the most goals in a season.

Rank

Player

Club

Goals

Zamora Trophy

The Ricardo Zamora Trophy is awarded by newspaper Marca to the goalkeeper with the lowest ratio of goals conceded to matches played. A goalkeeper had to play at least 28 matches of 60 or more minutes to be eligible for the trophy.

Rank

Player

Club

Goals
against

Matches

Average

Top assists

Source:

Fair Play award

This award is given annually since 1999 to the team with the best fair play during the season. This ranking takes into account aspects such as cards, suspension of matches, audience behaviour and other penalties. This section not only aims to determine the best fair play, but also serves to break the tie in teams that are tied in all the other rules: points, head-to-head, goal difference and goals scored.

Rank	Club	Matches								Points
1	Real Madrid	38	85	2	3	–	–	–	–	98
2	Tenerife	38	86	2	2	–	1¹³	–	–	101
3	Deportivo La Coruña	38	68	1	3	–	4^{10, 21, 28, 28}	1 Mild¹⁷	–	104
4	Barcelona	38	73	2	3	–	4^{5, 18, 21, 25}	–	–	106
5	Mallorca	38	93	1	2	–	2^{6, 11}	–	–	111
6	Almería	38	98	3	2	–	–	1 Mild³⁶	–	115
7	Atlético Madrid	38	90	4	3	–	2^{1, 23}	1 Mild¹⁰	–	122
8	Osasuna	38	83	3	6	–	–	2 Milds^{7, 11}, 1 Serious¹⁴	–	123
8	Sporting Gijón	38	98	2	2	–	1³⁴	2 Milds^{20, 34}	–	123
10	Espanyol	38	110	6	1	–	–	–	–	125
11	Racing Santander	38	104	1	1	–	4^{5, 20, 24, 29}	–	–	129
12	Villarreal	38	95	5	4	–	1⁵	2 Milds^{8, 37}	–	132
13	Athletic Bilbao	38	96	4	5	–	1²²	2 Milds^{7, 11}	–	134
13	Getafe	38	107	2	1	–	3^{5, 27, 28}	1 Mild²²	–	134
13	Valladolid	38	100	3	6	–	2^{10, 20}	–	–	134
16	Valencia	38	113	3	4	–	1²⁴	2 Milds^{3, 23}	–	146
17	Sevilla	38	101	4	6	–	2¹	2 Milds^{12, 19}	–	147
18	Xerez	38	100	4	5	–	5^{10, 23, 25, 31, 32}	1 Mild²²	–	153
19	Zaragoza	38	129	2	2	–	2^{10, 27}	1 Mild³⁴	–	154
20	Málaga	38	135	1	8	–	–	1 Mild²³	–	166

Source: Guia As de La Liga 2010–11, p. 129

Source: RFEF,,, and

Pedro Zaballa award

Atlético Madrid and Sevilla supporters

Season statistics

Scoring

First goal of the season:
Raúl for Real Madrid against Deportivo.Last goal of the season:
Rafael van der Vaart for Real Madrid against Málaga.

Hat-tricks

Player

For

Against

Result

Date

Reference

Discipline

First yellow card of the season: Dani Aranzubia for Deportivo La Coruña against Real Madrid First red card of the season: Leandro Gioda for Xerez against Mallorca

Attendances

FC Barcelona drew the highest average home attendance in the 2009-10 edition of La Liga.