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What's the story?
As the 2018/19 season of European football finally reached its culmination this week, Barcelona's ever-reliable No.10 Lionel Messi took home the crown of the top-scorer across the continent with 51 goals to his name in just 50 games.
In breaching the 50-goal mark this season, he matched his arch-rival, Cristiano Ronaldo's record of having achieved the sizeable tally of goals in a total of six seasons.
In case you didn't know...
Messi and Ronaldo hold the record for being the all-time top scorers for Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively.
During their spell together in LaLiga, the duo almost always ended as the top two scorers not only in Spain but in the European Golden Shoe rankings.
For the first time since the 2011-12 campaign of UEFA Champions League, Ronaldo will miss out on the top scorers' award at the tournament, which Messi is expected to win with 12 goals this season.
The 31-year-old Argentine ended his season with just one major trophy to his name with Barca, despite the Catalans being the favorites for yet another historic treble for most of the season, while Ronaldo picked up two trophies in his debut season with The Old Lady.
When the Catalans won the 2018/19 LaLiga title, it meant that the five-time Ballon d'Or winner extended his record of being the most decorated player in club’s history, with 34 trophies lined up in his extraordinary trophy cabinet.
The heart of the matter
The 50-goal mark remains highly revered among top strikers of the game, a feat that either of the duo achieved in the previous nine seasons, except for the 2017/18 campaign.
Ronaldo had secured a half-century of goals in six consecutive seasons in Los Blancos colors, between 2010 to 2016.
After scoring 51 goals this season, with a goal ratio of 1.02 goals per game, Messi has now matched his right-footed adversary's record, as this was the sixth season of his illustrious career that the player with a wand of a left foot had scored 50 or more goals across all competitions.
He enjoyed the most prolific spell of his career in the 2011/12 season in which he netted an astronomical figure of 73 goals for his boyhood club.
What's next?
Both Messi and Ronaldo have been named in their national squads. While Ronaldo will lead Portugal against Switzerland in the UEFA Nations League semi-finals in the first week of June, Messi & Co. get ready for the Copa America that kicks off in Brasil from 14 June.
