Yes, you read that title correctly: Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo ended 2021 as top scorer for Barcelona and Juventusrespectively, even though the two superstars left LaLiga and Series A in the summer.
Messi, 34, leaves Camp Nou amid a curtain of tears to sign a contract Paris Saint-Germain on August 11, while the 36-year-old Ronaldo made a comeback Manchester United three weeks later.
– ESPN FC 100: Introducing the top male players and managers of 2021
– Daily ESPN FC live stream on ESPN+ (US only)
– No ESPN? Instant access
The 2021-22 season is now halfway through for Barca and Juve, but none of their former team-mates have come past the player’s goal in the calendar year.
Messi scored 28 goals for Barca in 2021 before his contract expired, but no one from far and wide to compare his path to the end of the year Tuesday’s 1-1 draw in Seville, the last match of the year for both clubs (replay on ESPN+ in the US).
Meanwhile, Ronaldo has scored 20 goals for Juve in all competitions in the second half of the 2020-21 campaign before returning to Old Trafford in the summer. His tally is still at the top of the charts for Bianconeri next their 2-0 win end Cagliari on Tuesday, their last match before face-to-face Napoli on January 6.
It’s a testament to the duo’s enduring brilliance – after all, they are ranked 1st and 2nd among the world’s top strikers in ESPN’s FC 100 rankings for 2021 – or a damn indictment of the detachments they left behind. Probably both.
Barcelona (108 goals in all competitions in 2021)
The Catalan giants have scored a total of 108 goals in all competitions in 2021, with Messi scoring 28 of them before leaving PSG in August. The rest of the Barca team had 80 goals between them.
Messi has scored almost twice as many goals as the next player on the list, Antoine Griezmann, who also left Camp Nou to return Atlético Madrid loans in early September.
28 goals: Lionel Messi
15: Antoine Griezmann
8: Memphis Depay
7: Frenkie de Jong
6: Ousmane Dembele
4: Ansu Fati, Jordi Alba, Martin Braithwaite
3: Gerard Pique, Ronald Araujo, Francisco Trincao
2: Pedal, Oscar Mingueza, Sergino Dest, Sergi Roberto, Philippe Coutinho, Nicolas Gonzalez, home net
first: Riqui Puig, Junior Firpo, Ilaix Moriba, Luuk de Jong, Sergio Aguero, Sergio Busquets, Abde Ezzalzouli, Ferran Jutgla, Gavi
Juventus (106 goals in all competitions in 2021)
Post-Ronaldo, Juve have struggled to keep pace in Serie A this season and are fifth in the league scoring fewer goals than any other club in the top eight.
However, they have scored 106 goals in all competitions this year, with 20 of them scored by Ronaldo before he rejoined Manchester United at the end of August.
Juve have seen a few players break the double figure of Barca, but second-highest scorer Morata still fails to top the charts for this calendar year despite 53 appearances. pitch for Ronaldo’s club from 2021 to 31, as well as inheriting the penalty-receiving duty.
20: Cristiano Ronaldo
17: Alvaro Morata
15: Federico Chiesa
11: Paulo Dybala
6: Juan Cuadrado, Weston McKennie
5: Dejan Kulusevski
4: Adrien Rabiot, Moise Kean
3: Alex Sandro, Leonardo Bonucci
2: Aaron Ramsey, Matthijs de Ligt, Manuel Locatelli
first: Danilo, Hamza Rafia, Arthur, Gianluca Frabotta, Federico Bernardeschi, home net
