Messi vs Ronaldo in 2018: juventus and a world cup hat-trick.

2018 is the year the rivalry stopped being a La Liga argument. Messi scored 51 to Ronaldo's 49 — a margin of 2 — and in July Ronaldo left Real Madrid for Juventus for €100m. He went on to win Serie A twice, which eventually made him a league champion in three countries, and later a fourth.

His summer in Russia produced the performance of a World Cup he did not win: three goals in Portugal's 3–3 draw with Spain on 15 June, including an 88th-minute free kick, with the first of the three a penalty. Ten days later he missed one against Iran, saved by Beiranvand, though Portugal drew 1–1 and qualified anyway. Messi's World Cup also turned on a penalty — his was saved by Iceland's Hannes Halldórsson in a 1–1 group draw on 16 June.

Neither made the Ballon d'Or podium. Luka Modrić won it, Ronaldo was second, Griezmann third and Messi fifth — Messi's first finish outside the top three since the table on this site begins.

Messi gave his most considered account of the rivalry that year: "It's been many years, more than ten, that we've been there. I think the rivalry was good for football, not for us. We've never been friends, but we were never rivals off the pitch either."