Messi vs Ronaldo in 2008: first meeting, first ballon d'or.

2008 is the first year the two careers actually touched. On 23 April, in the Champions League semi-final first leg at the Camp Nou, Barcelona and Manchester United drew 0–0 and Messi and Ronaldo shared a pitch for the first time. United took the tie in the return at Old Trafford and went on to beat Chelsea on penalties in Moscow, where Ronaldo both scored in the final and missed in the shootout — saved by Petr Čech, with United winning 6–5 anyway after John Terry slipped.

It was Ronaldo's year end to end. He finished with 53 goals to Messi's 38, took his first Ballon d'Or in December with Messi second, and scored his first senior hat-trick in January — three against Newcastle in a 6–0 away win. 53 goals remains his joint eighth-best calendar year.

Messi's 38 was his first year above 20 and his 13th-highest overall, a figure that reads modestly only because of what came next. Between them they scored 91 goals in 2008, the first time the pair passed 90 in a calendar year — and they went on to clear 100 in each of the 9 years from 2010 to 2018.