Barcelona forward Lionel Messi outguns Cristiano Ronaldo
The Argentine ends up on 51 goals against Ronaldo's 49
Excluded from the big awards and without luck in the Champions League and World Cup, 2018 will be bittersweet for Lionel Messi. But he does have an outstanding goalscoring tally, 51 in the calendar year - 47 for Barcelona and four for Argentina. That takes him ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Juventus forward has 49 goals, 15 with Juve, six with Portugal, and 28 with his previous club Real Madrid.
Considering he didn’t get beyond the quarter-finals of the UCL or last 16 of the World Cup, it is an impressive haul for Messi.
The Argentina star netted a hat-trick against Haiti in a friendly in Buenos Aires and one in the World Cup, against Nigeria with a brilliant control and finish.
Leo left the Argentina national team but may return in 2019.
He became captain at Barcelona, taking over from Iniesta, and won the Pichichi with 34 goals last season.
Messi has 34 in the calendar year in La Liga too, followed by Luis Suarez with 25 and Cristhian Stuani with 23.
Messi also has the most assists of the year too, 16, above Suarez 12 and Antoine Griezmann 10.
Messi’s best month in 2018 was January, scoring eight goals - five in La Liga and three in the Copa. He scored in seven of eight games that he featured in that month.
