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

#2018 Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina) - 51 goals

Lionel Messi had a prolific year in 2018.

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 has been on a tear for a while now.

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 had another goal-rich year in 2020.

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.