Ronaldo, Messi, Lewandowski: Players with most calendar-year goals in each of the last 11 years

#2014 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal) - 61 goals

Ronaldo won the 2014 Ballon d'Or award for his blistering exploits during the year.

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.

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#2015 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal) - 57 goals

Cristiano Ronaldo narrowly missed out on a hat-trick of Ballon d'Or awards in 2015.

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.

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#2016 Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina) - 59 goals

Lionel Messi had a goal-rich year in 2016.

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.

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#2017 Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur/England) - 56 goals

Harry Kane enjoyed a breakout year in 2017.

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.