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To Courtois and Costa go the Zamora and Zarra. Those are awards in Spain (as decided and given by Marca), if you're unfamiliar, recognizing the Chelsea pair's achievements from last season.
.@Simeone, @ThibautCourtois and Diego Costa have received the Miguel Muñoz, Zamora and Zarra awards. Congratulations! pic.twitter.com/S9clnuhS0G
— Atleti English (@atletienglish) November 10, 2014
The Zamora (Ricardo, not Bobby) is given each year to the goalkeeper with the best goals-to-games ratio, and with this year's award, the Chelsea loanee successfully defended his crown from the previous year. Courtois's goals against average was a meager 0.65 (24 conceded in 37), good enough for third best in the last 20 seasons. The all-time record remains with (uncapped) Francisco Liaño of Deportivo La Coruña, who conceded just 18 goals in 38 matches in 1993-94.
The Zarra, named after Telmo Zarra -- i.e. the man who used to score more frequently than Lionel Messi even -- is given each year to the Spanish player with the most goals in the league. So neither Cristiano nor Messi are eligible, which means that in the last few seasons, the award's gone to the likes of Roberto Soldado and Alvaro Negredo and, now, Diego Costa. Ominously, both Soldado and Negredo earned big money moves to the Premier League, but failed to continue their goalscoring exploits. Fortunately, Diego's not really Spanish, so he seems to have escaped this curse.
Congrats to all!