Neymar becomes first Barcelona player to win La Liga Player of the Month award

Neymar has been recognised for his five goals in November

Neymar has won November's La Liga Player of the Month award (La Liga)

Streaks are there to be broken. Arsenal’s unbeaten run came to an halt at the hands of Manchester United that ended the era of the ‘Invincibles’, Brock Lesnar beat Undertaker to become the 1 in 21-1 at WrestleMania, and more recently Ronda Rousey saw her winning streak in the UFC ended with a stunning knockout defeat by Holly Holm.

But now the longest running streak, at least for Barcelona, is over – and that’s a good thing for the Catalans.

After 20 consecutive months without recognition, a Barcelona player has finally won the La Liga Player of the Month award, and somewhat surprisingly it isn’t Lionel Messi but his in-form team-mate Neymar.

The Brazilian picked up the award on Tuesday morning after scoring five goals in just three matches in November, with Barcelona stretching their winning streak to seven matches that only came to a halt on Saturday in the form of a 1-1 draw with Valencia.

Neymar was pushed hard for the award by another of his colleagues in Luis Suarez, who scored four goals in as many games but ultimately fell short of Neymar’s standard.

It ends over two years of being overlooked for the accolade, given that no Barcelona player has ever won the award since its inception in September 2013, and the Nou Camp outfit are still well short of the front-runners in Atletico Madrid, with Diego Simeone’s side seeing his players win the award six times during his reign in charge – Antoine Griezmann and Diego Godin have two apiece while Koke and Diego Costa took the first two Player of the Month awards back in 2013.