| Competition: | La Liga |
| Dates: | 28 August 2010 – 21 May 2011 |
| Season: | 2010–11 |
| Winners: | Barcelona 21st title |
| Relegated: | Deportivo La Coruña Hércules Almería |
| Continentalcup1: | Champions League |
| Continentalcup1 Qualifiers: | Barcelona Real Madrid Valencia Villarreal |
| Continentalcup2: | Europa League |
| Continentalcup2 Qualifiers: | Sevilla Athletic Bilbao Atlético Madrid |
| League Topscorer: | Cristiano Ronaldo (40 goals) |
| Biggest Home Win: | Real Madrid 7–0 Málaga (3 March 2011)[1] Real Madrid 8–1 Almería (21 May 2011)[2] |
| Biggest Away Win: | Almería 0–8 Barcelona (20 November 2010)[3] |
| Highest Scoring: | Valencia 3–6 Real Madrid (23 April 2011)[4] Real Madrid 8–1 Almería (21 May 2011) |
| Matches: | 380 |
| Total Goals: | 1042 |
| Longest Wins: | 16 matches Barcelona[5] |
| Longest Unbeaten: | 31 matches Barcelona |
| Longest Winless: | 11 matches Sporting Gijón |
| Longest Losses: | 7 matches Almería |
| Highest Attendance: | 98,000 Barcelona 5–0 Real Madrid (29 November 2010) |
| Lowest Attendance: | 5,000 Almería 0–0 Villarreal (11 May 2011) Almería 3–1 Mallorca (15 May 2011) |
| Average Attendance: | 29,099 |
| Prevseason: | 2009–10 |
| Nextseason: | 2011–12 |
The 2010–11 La Liga (known as the Liga BBVA for sponsorship reasons) was the 80th season of La Liga since its establishment. The campaign began on 28 August 2010, and concluded on 21 May 2011. A total of 20 teams contested the league, 17 of which already partook in the 2009–10 season, and three of which were promoted from the Segunda División. In addition, a new match ball – the Nike Total 90 Tracer – served as the official ball for all matches.[6]
Defending champions Barcelona secured a third consecutive and overall 21st La Liga title following a 1–1 draw with Levante on 11 May 2011.[7] [8] The result gave Barcelona a six-point lead with two matches remaining which, combined with their superior head-to-head record against Real Madrid, ensured that they would finish top of the table.[9] Barcelona led the table since defeating Real Madrid 5–0 on 23 November 2010. From that point onwards, they lost only one match en route to winning the title.[10] Barcelona's Lionel Messi won La Liga's Award for Best Player for a third straight year.
The season was again dominated by Barcelona and Real Madrid, with second-place Madrid 21 points ahead of third-place Valencia.[11] Having also faced off in the Champions League semi-finals and the Copa del Rey final, the top two rivals met four times over seventeen days, for a total of five meetings this season.[12]
Real Valladolid, CD Tenerife and Xerez CD were relegated to the Segunda División after finishing the 2009–10 season in the bottom three places. Tenerife and Xerez made their immediate return to the second level after just one year in the Spanish top flight, while Valladolid ended a three-year tenure in La Liga.
The relegated teams were replaced by 2009–10 Segunda División champions Real Sociedad from San Sebastián, runners-up Hércules CF from Alicante and Levante UD from Valencia. Hércules returned to the highest Spanish football league for the first time after 13 years, while Real Sociedad and Levante terminated their second-level status after three and two years, respectively.
| Team | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Position in table | Replaced by | Date of appointment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mallorca |  Gregorio Manzano | End of contract | 19 May 2010[13] | Pre-season | Michael Laudrup | 2 July 2010[14] |
| Real Madrid | Manuel Pellegrini | Sacked | 26 May 2010[15] | José Mourinho | 28 May 2010[16] | |
| Málaga | Juan Muñiz | 16 June 2010[17] | Jesualdo Ferreira | 17 June 2010[18] | ||
| Sevilla | Antonio Álvarez | 26 September 2010[19] | 7th | Gregorio Manzano | 26 September 2010 | |
| Málaga | Jesualdo Ferreira | 2 November 2010[20] | 18th | Manuel Pellegrini | 2 November 2010[21] | |
| Zaragoza | José Aurelio Gay | 17 November 2010[22] | 20th |  Javier Aguirre | 17 November 2010 | |
| Almería | Juanma Lillo | 20 November 2010[23] | 19th | José Luis Oltra | 24 November 2010[24] | |
| Racing Santander | Miguel Ángel Portugal | 7 February 2011[25] | 16th | Marcelino | 9 February 2011[26] | |
| Osasuna | José Antonio Camacho | 14 February 2011[27] | 18th | José Luis Mendilibar | 14 February 2011[28] | |
| Hércules | Esteban Vigo | 20 March 2011[29] | 20th | Miroslav Đukić | 23 March 2011[30] | |
| Almería | José Luis Oltra | 5 April 2011[31] | 20th | Roberto Olabe | 5 April 2011[32] |
La Liga's governing body, the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional, honoured the competition's best players and coach with Awards.[33]
| Award | Recipient | |
|---|---|---|
| Best Player |  Lionel Messi (Barcelona) | |
| Best Coach | Pep Guardiola (Barcelona) | |
| Best Goalkeeper | Víctor Valdés (Barcelona) | |
| Best Defender |  Eric Abidal (Barcelona) | |
| Best Midfielder(s) | Xavi (Barcelona) Andrés Iniesta (Barcelona) | |
| Best Forward | Lionel Messi (Barcelona) |
This is the list of goalscorers in accordance with the LFP as organising body.
| width=50px | Rank | Player | Club | width=50px | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid | 40 | ||
| 2 | Barcelona | 31 | |||
| 3 | Sergio Agüero | Atlético Madrid | 20 | ||
| Álvaro Negredo | Sevilla | ||||
| 5 | Fernando Llorente | Athletic Bilbao | 18 | ||
 Giuseppe Rossi | Villarreal | ||||
| Roberto Soldado | Valencia | ||||
| David Villa | Barcelona | ||||
| 9 | Karim Benzema | Real Madrid | 15 | ||
| 10 |  Salomón Rondón | Málaga | 14 |
The Pichichi Trophy is awarded by newspaper Marca to the player who scores the most goals in a season, according to its own rules[34] (different from the ones used by FIFA) to determine the goalscorer.
| width=50px | Rank | Player | Club | width=50px | Goals | width=50px | Penalties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Real Madrid | 41 | 8 | ||||
| 2 | Lionel Messi | Barcelona | 31 | 4 | |||
| 3 | Sergio Agüero | Atlético Madrid | 20 | 1 | |||
| Álvaro Negredo | Sevilla | 3 | |||||
| 5 | Fernando Llorente | Athletic Bilbao | 18 | 0 | |||
| Giuseppe Rossi | Villarreal | 4 | |||||
| Roberto Soldado | Valencia | 1 | |||||
| David Villa | Barcelona | 0 | |||||
| 9 | Karim Benzema | Real Madrid | 15 | 0 | |||
| 10 | Salomón Rondón | Málaga | 14 | 0 |
| Rank | Player | Club | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mesut Özil | Real Madrid | 18 |
| 1 | Lionel Messi | Barcelona | 18 |
| 3 |  Dani Alves | Barcelona | 15 |
| 4 | Xabi Prieto | Real Sociedad | 13 |
| 5 | Juan Mata | Valencia | 12 |
| 6 | Ángel Di María | Real Madrid | 11 |
| 7 | Santi Cazorla | Villarreal | 10 |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid | ||
| 9 |  Valdo | Levante | 8 |
| Borja Valero | Villarreal |
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.[35]
| Rank | Player | Club | Goals against | Matches | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barcelona | 16 | 32 | 0.50 | ||
| 2 | Iker Casillas | Real Madrid | 32 | 34 | 0.94 | |
| 3 | Dani Aranzubia | Deportivo La Coruña | 36 | 32 | 1.13 | |
| 4 | Diego López | Villarreal | 44 | 38 | 1.16 | |
| 5 | Ricardo | Osasuna | 46 | 38 | 1.21 |
This award was given annually since 1999 to the team with the best fair play during the season. This ranking took into account aspects such as cards, suspension of matches, audience behaviour and other penalties. This section not only aims to know this aspect, 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.
Sources of cards and penalties: Referee's reports, Competition Committee's Sanctions, Appeal Committee Resolutions and RFEF's Directory about Fair Play Rankings
Fernando Llorente for Athletic Bilbao against Hércules (28 August 2010).[38]
Kennedy Bakircioglu for Racing Santander against Athletic Bilbao (21 May 2011).[39]See main article: List of La Liga hat-tricks.
Noé Pamarot for Hércules against Athletic Bilbao (28 August 2010)[40] Matías Fritzler for Hércules against Athletic Bilbao (28 August 2010)[41]