Messi vs Ronaldo in 2020: the year with no ballon d'or.

2020 is the quietest year of the rivalry's peak and the only one with no Ballon d'Or to argue about — the award was cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Ronaldo scored 41 to Messi's 31, a margin of 10. Messi's 31 is his joint 14th-best total, level with 2022 and 2026; Ronaldo's 41 is his 15th.

Their combined 72 goals is the 7th-lowest of the 22 years on record, and the first year since 2009 in which the pair failed to reach 78 between them.

The football that did happen was Ronaldo's: the 2019–20 Juventus season brought 37 goals in 46 games and a club record of scoring in eleven straight Serie A matches. Messi's 2020 was his last full calendar year as a Barcelona player.

Two of the better assessments of each man date from this period. Messi, after Ronaldo scored twice against Barcelona at the Camp Nou: "Cristiano is an extraordinary player. The matches we played against each other will be remembered as part of the history of the sport." Carlo Ancelotti, on coaching Ronaldo: "I have never coached anyone who wants to win as much as Cristiano. Every training session is a final for him."

What makes 2020 worth a page is what is missing from it. There is no Ballon d'Or, no final either player reached, no Clásico in the records, and no dated moment involving both of them — an emptiness no other year in this range matches, and the pandemic accounts for most of it: football was suspended mid-season and resumed behind closed doors.