Messi vs Ronaldo in 2012: the 91-goal calendar year.

2012 is the outlier year of modern football. Messi scored 91 goals for club and country, breaking Gerd Müller's calendar-year record, and it remains his highest total by 31 — no other year of his career comes within 30 of it. Ronaldo's 63 was his second-best year and would have led almost any other year in the rivalry; in 2012 it was 28 behind.

Their combined 154 goals is the highest in the 2005–2026 range by 35. For context, the next-highest combined year is 2011 and 2014 at 119, and by 2026 the pair's combined total had fallen to 53.

The match that sits at the centre of the year came on 7 March, when Messi scored five against Bayer Leverkusen in a Champions League round-of-16 second leg at the Camp Nou. No player has scored five in a Champions League match before or since. The 2011–12 season he was finishing brought 73 goals in 60 games; the 2012–13 season he was starting brought 60 in 50, a second consecutive 50-plus La Liga campaign in which he scored against every team in the league.

Ronaldo's year ended in frustration at international level: he was slated to take Portugal's fifth penalty in the Euro 2012 semi-final shootout against Spain and never got to, because Portugal had been eliminated before his turn came. Messi won a fourth consecutive Ballon d'Or, with Ronaldo second for the fourth time.