Chris Wildgoose | Sports Journalist

With 251 goals to his name, Telmo Zarraonandia Montoya is the highest scoring Spaniard in La Liga history. ‘Zarra’, as he is affectionately known, is not a household name. Real Madrid legends Raul Gonzalez and Alfredo di Stefano often steal the limelight when we think of the great Spanish strikers.

Unfortunately, players are often judged on honours rather than a goals record. Take Alan Shearer, for example. The Newcastle icon only won one domestic honour in his phenomenal career (the 1994/95 Premier League title with Blackburn Rovers), despite scoring 260 top flight goals.

It’s also a similar story on the continent. Delio Onnis, Ligue 1’s all-time top scorer with 299 goals, only won one league title in 1978 with Monaco and was never capped by Argentina. In Serie A, Lazio and Juventus striker Silvio Piola scored 274 goals and never claimed a domestic crown, but was part of Italy’s 1938 World Cup winning squad – scoring twice in the final as the Azzurri beat Hungary 4-2 in Paris.

In comparison, Raul claimed six La Liga titles and three Champions League crowns with Real and before him, di Stefano was the spearhead of a team that won five consecutive European Cups between 1956 and 1960, and eight Primera Division (La Liga) titles in ten years between 1954 and 1964.

Perhaps what’s most remarkable about Zarraonandia’s achievement is that his tally was amassed in just 278 outings. Raul, the next Spaniard on the list, found the next 228 times in 550 appearances for the Galacticos, while di Stefano scored 227 goals in 329 games.

In addition to his 251 league goals, Zarra is also the top scorer in Copa del Rey history with an incredible 81 strikes in 74 games. Despite his goal scoring exploits, the Athletic Bilbao legend was only capped 20 times by Spain – but still managed a goal a game.

In his 15 seasons with Bilbao, the Basque club only won one La Liga title (1942/43) and finished as runners-up on three occasions. Zarraonandia helped Los Leones to five Copa del Rey crowns, and also lost in the final three times too.

His 38 goal haul during the 1950/51 campaign was a record tally that lasted for six decades until Cristiano Ronaldo scored 40 times for Real Madrid (the record was broken again the following season by Lionel Messi, who amassed an astonishing 50 goals for Barcelona in 2011/12).

Since his death on 23 February 2006, Spanish sport daily Marca has awarded the top scoring Spaniard in La Liga with the Zarra Trophy – first presented to David Villa at the end of the 2005/06 campaign.

At the end of the 2014/15 season, Aritz Aduriz became the first Bilbao player to receive this award, which had previously been won by Alvaro Negredo, Roberto Soldado and Diego Costa. Currently leading the way to claim the Zarra Trophy this season is former Liverpool striker Iago Aspas, who is plying his trade with Celta Vigo.

Regardless of domestic honours, Zarraonandia is an all-time great. He scored 20 or more goals in seven seasons and was awarded the Pichichi Trophy (also presented by Marca, in memory of another Bilbao legend Rafael Moreno Aranzadi) for La Liga top scorer on six occasions – more than any other player.