'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
A plethora of prolific goalscorers have graced the game since the turn of the century. The 2000s saw the likes of Thierry Henry, Michael Owen and Ruud van Nistelrooy run riot. Towards the end of the decade, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi emerged on the scene.
The duo are still going strong despite being on the wrong side of 30. Meanwhile, there have been a few other prolific goalscorers emerging in the last decade. Luis Suarez, Robert Lewandowski, Sergio Aguero, Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku have consistently scored goals aplenty.
More recently, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Braut Haaland have made their names as prolific goalscorers.
Considering the attacking talent on offer, there have been many memorable calendar-year performances, especially in the last decade. On that note, here's a look at the most prolific goalscorer in every calendar year since 2010. The tally includes goals scored for both club and country during the year.
Trending
Without further ado, let's get started:
#2010 Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina) - 60 goals
Lionel Messi had a memorable year in 2010. The Argentine scored goals galore, especially in La Liga. Messi registered 25 strikes in the second half of the 2009-10 campaign to help Barcelona successfully defend their league title.
The 2009 Ballon d'Or winner also sizzled in the Champions League. After a brace against Stuttgart, Messi starred with a four-goal salvo against Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-final. However, Barcelona were eliminated by eventual champions Inter Milan in the last four.
Messi endured an uncharacteristically poor campaign at the 2010 FIFA World Cup with Argentina, failing to score in five games, though he assisted thrice. Nevertheless, he started the 2010-11 season on fire, netting 17 league goals to set Barcelona on their way to a La Liga three peat.
Overall, Messi scored 60 goals in 64 games during the year en route to winning his second Ballon d'Or award.
#2011 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal) - 60 goals
Cristiano Ronaldo had his first truly goal-rich year in 2011 when he amassed 60 goals in as many games for club and country.
The Portuguese began the year with 23 goals in the second half of the 2010-11 La Liga season, including four hat-tricks. However, he underwhelmed in the Champions League knockout stage, scoring only twice. Ronaldo couldn't do much as Real Madrid endured a semi-final exit against arch-rivals Barcelona.
He endured a slow start to his 2011-12 Champions League campaign as well, scoring only thrice in four games. But Ronaldo enjoyed rich dividends in La Liga, netting 20 times, including a staggering five hat-tricks.
In the process, he also brought up his 100th goal for Real Madrid across competitions. Over the next seven years, he would score 350 more.
He also scored five times for Portugal to round off a stellar year. Thanks to his blistering start in La Liga, Ronaldo went on to win his first Spanish top-flight title later that season.
#2012 Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina) - 91 goals
In 2012, Lionel Messi produced arguably the best-ever calendar-year performance by any player in the history of the game. The Argentine scored a staggering 91 times for club and country.
During the year, Messi became the first player to breach the 50-goal mark in a La Liga season. It was also the first time anybody scored that many goals in a top-five league campaign in Europe.
However, Real Madrid beat Barcelona to the league title. In the Champions League, eventual champions Chelsea eliminated the Blaugrana in the semi-finals. Messi eventually had to settle for just the Copa Del Rey title that year.
Messi was imperious in the first half of the 2012-13 season too. He ended the year with more goals than four European bigwigs - Manchester United, PSG, Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund. What's even more impressive is that Messi conjured this tally of 91 goals during the year in just 69 games.
During the year, the Argentine scored 79 goals for Barcelona and 12 for Argentina. In the process, Messi broke Gerd Muller's record of most goals (85) by a player in a calendar year. However, Messi's average of 1.32 goals per game that year was marginally shy of Muller's 1.42 (85 goals in 60 games).
Nevertheless, thanks to his blistering exploits that year, Messi became the first player to win four consecutive Ballon d'Or awards.
#2013 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal) - 69 goals
After his blistering exploits in 2011 and 2012, when the Portuguese netted at least 60 goals apiece, Cristiano Ronaldo took things up a notch in 2013.
He began the year with 20 league goals, including two hat-tricks. In the Champions League, though, there was heartbreak in store for Ronaldo and Real Madrid. Los Blancos were eliminated by Borussia Dortmund in the semis despite their Portuguese ace netting six times in the knockout stage.
However, better things were in store for Ronaldo in the first half of the 2013-14 season. The then 28-year-old netted 18 league goals to close the year. Ronaldo enjoyed another strong start to his Champions League campaign, scoring eight group-stage goals.
Ronaldo also netted a Copa del Rey hat-trick and two more with Portugal, for whom he scored ten times. He closed a career-best year with a rich tally of 69 goals.
Ronaldo would win his second Ballon d'Or award that year and his first since moving to Real Madrid in 2009.
#2014 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal) - 61 goals
Cristiano Ronaldo had a memorable year for club and country in 2014 as he scored goals galore in La Liga and the Champions League. Real Madrid won their much-awaited La Decima in the latter competition that year, thanks to Ronaldo's eight knockout-stage goals, including one in the final.
That made Ronaldo the first player to score for two different winning teams in a Champions League final. He also became the first player to score 17 times in a single edition of the competition, a record that still stands.
Ronaldo started his 2014-15 campaign on fire, netting a staggering 25 goals to set the pace for another record-breaking campaign.
Thanks to his blistering exploits - 61 goals in 60 games - that year, Real Madrid won the Copa Del Rey, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup titles. In the process, the Portuguese clinched his third Ballon d'Or award, second on the trot, for his exploits.
#2015 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal) - 57 goals
Cristiano Ronaldo had yet another memorable year in 2015, amassing 57 goals in as many games for club and country. All but three of these strikes came for his then club Real Madrid.
Ronaldo scored 20 goals in the second half of the 2014-15 La Liga campaign. He netted four hat-tricks, including three in his last four games of the campaign and a five-goal outing against Granada. He also scored five goals in the Champions League knockout stage. However, holders Real Madrid were beaten by Juventus in the semi-finals.
The Portuguese started the 2015-16 season on fire, blasting two hat-tricks, including a four-goal outing. That set up a fabulous goalscoring campaign as Ronaldo scored 11 group-stage goals in the Champions League.
In La Liga, Ronaldo made an uncharacteristically slow start, failing to score in six games either side of a five-goal outing against Espanyol. But he soon picked up pace to move to 14 league goals at the halfway mark. The Portuguese also scored a hat-trick for Portugal.
Unfortunately, despite the Portuguese tallying 50 goals in a calendar year for the fourth-straight year, Real Madrid failed to land the La Liga or Champions League.
#2016 Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina) - 59 goals
Lionel Messi enjoyed another goal-rich year in 2016. The Argentine started the year by amassing 20 league goals, helping Barcelona successfully defend their La league title. But despite Messi scoring five times in the Champions League knockout stage, holders Barcelona were dumped out by Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals.
After missing the first three league games of the new season, Messi managed 12 La Liga goals to close out the year. However, it was in the Champions League, where he truly dazzled.
Messi scored hat-tricks against Borussia Monchengladbach and Manchester City en route to ten goals in six group-stage games. The aforementioned trebles were his sixth and seventh hat-tricks in the competition, as he broke a tie with Ronaldo.
During the year, Messi also scored a Copa del Rey hat-trick and one against Panama in the Copa America Centenario in the USA. But Argentina endured a shootout heartbreak against Chile in their second-consecutive Copa final.
That prompted a heartbroken Messi to announce his international retirement, a decision he would soon rescind.
#2017 Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur/England) - 56 goals
Harry Kane had a memorable year in 2017. He started the year by scoring 21 times in the second half of the 2016-17 Premier League. Kane registered four hat-tricks, two of them in the last two games of the season.
After ending the campaign with 29 league goals, Kane would go one better the next campaign. He closed the first half of the 2017-18 season with 18 goals. His hat-trick against Southampton - sixth in the league in 2017 - helped Kane break Alan Shearer's record for most Premier League goals in a year.
In the process, Kane, who also scored six goals for England during the year, overtook a certain Lionel Messi to emerge as the top scorer of the year.
An ecstatic Kane said after breaking Shearer's record:
"It's been a fantastic year. It is always about improving every year. That's what I always have done throughout my caree,r and it is what I will continue to do."
The Englishman would end the season with a career-best tally of 30 goals. However, despite his staggering exploits, Tottenham Hotspur finished a whopping 23 points adrift of champions Manchester City.
#2018 Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina) - 51 goals
Lionel Messi had another prolific scoring year in 2018. He ended the second half of the 2017-18 La Liga campaign with 18 goals to win his fifth Pichichi award.
Messi also won his ninth La Liga title in the process. However, he scored only thrice in the Champions League knockouts as Barcelona squandered a 4-1 first-leg lead to lose against AS Roma in the quarter-finals.
After a hat-trick in a friendly against Haiti, Messi scored just once in the 2018 FIFA World Cup as Argentina lost to eventual winners France in the Round of 16.
Messi then opened his 2018-19 Champions League campaign with a hat-trick against PSV Eindhoven, en route to six group-stage goals.
He endured a slow start to his La Liga campaign before picking up pace to end the year with 33 league goals. However, Messi missed out on the Ballon d'Or award, losing to Luka Modric.
#2019 - Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich/Poland) - 54 goals
Robert Lewandowski endured a rather quiet end to his 2018-19 league campaign. The Pole scored only 12 times in the second half to help Bayern Munich to another Bundesliga title. Lewandowski went scoreless in the Champions League knockouts as Bayern were eliminated by Liverpool in the Round of 16.
He did score six times in his last three games to help Bayern Munich to the DFB Pokal title. Lewandowski then started his 2019-20 Bundesliga campaign like a house on fire, becoming the first player to score in the first 11 games of the league season.
He scored 16 times, including a hat-trick in this period, closing out the year with 31 Bundesliga strikes.
In the Champions League, Lewandowski scored ten goals in five group-stage games, including the quickest-ever quadruple in the competition's history. He also scored six goals for Poland, including a hat-trick against Latvia, in their successful Euro 2020 qualification campaign.
#2020 Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich/Poland) - 47 goals
Robert Lewandowski scored 15 league goals in the second half of the season as Bayern Munich won their eighth consecutive Bundesliga title. However, he fell six shy of breaking the late Gerd Muller's record of most goals (40) in a Bundesliga season.
Lewandowski netted five times in the Champions League knockouts as Bayern won their second continental treble. He also scored five times in his last three DFB Pokal games to help the Bavarian giants win the competition.
The Poland international started his 2020-21 Bundesliga campaign on fire. Lewandowski closed the year with 17 more league goals to set the stage for a record-breaking campaign. In the Champions League, he netted only three times in the group stage.
With Euro 2020 postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lewandowski scored only two international goals for Poland in 2020.
Considering his stellar exploits and big titles during the year, Lewandowski was a strong contender for the Ballon d'Or award. But the prestigious award got canceled for the year, owing to the pandemic.
