Messi vs Ronaldo in 2010: the manita and a second award.

Messi scored 60 goals in 2010 — his second-best calendar year — against Ronaldo's 51. Both were career-shaping: it was Ronaldo's first full year at Real Madrid and the start of nine consecutive years in which he scored at least 39.

Two nights define the year. On 6 April, Messi scored four in 38 minutes against Arsenal in a Champions League quarter-final at the Camp Nou, which is the match that established him as a European competition force rather than a La Liga one. On 5 May, Ronaldo answered with four of his own against Mallorca — the Bernabéu's first Ronaldo poker, in his debut Madrid season.

The Clásico that everyone remembers from 2010 came in November, and neither of them scored in it. Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5–0 at the Camp Nou on 29 November — the manita — with Xavi, Pedro, David Villa twice and Jeffrén on the scoresheet as Guardiola's side dismantled José Mourinho's previously unbeaten Madrid. Messi created two of the five.

Messi won the Ballon d'Or for the second year running. Ronaldo did not make the podium, finishing sixth behind Iniesta and Xavi — the only year between 2007 and 2017 in which he missed it.

2010 is also the year the pair's combined output peaked as a sustained run rather than a spike. Their 111 goals is the first of 9 consecutive years above 100, which runs to 2018 and has no equivalent before or since. Messi had taken the lead in 2009, 47 to 33, and led again here.