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#3 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid/Portugal) - 61 goals (2014)
Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the best players to have ever played the game, had a memorable year for club and country in 2014.
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Ronaldo scored goals galore, both in La Liga and the Champions League. Real Madrid won their much-awaited La Decima in the latter competition that year, with the Portuguese scoring eight times in the knockout round. This included a goal in the final as well.
That made Ronaldo the first player to score for two different winning teams in a Champions League final. He also became the first player to score 17 times in a single edition of the competition, a record that still stands.
Ronaldo started the 2014-15 season like a man possessed, netting a staggering 25 goals to set the pace for another record-breaking campaign. Thanks to Ronaldo's blistering exploits - 61 goals in 60 games - that year, Real Madrid won the Copa Del Rey, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup titles. The Portuguese also clinched his third Ballon d'Or award.
#2 Gerd Muller (Bayern Munich/Germany) - 85 goals (1972)
"Der Bomber" Gerd Muller produced one of the greatest single-year performances by any player in 1972.
He became the first player to breach the 40-goal mark in a Bundesliga season, a record that would stay intact for almost five decades. The Bayern Munich marksman then scored four times to help West Germany win their first European Championship.
Muller continued in the same vein in the first half of the 1972-73 season, scoring goals galore. He ended the year with a stunning tally of 85 goals for club and country. Muller narrowly missed out on the Ballon d'Or award that year, with his German and Bayern Munich teammate Franz Beckenbauer taking the award home.
Muller was at the peak of his powers that year, scoring goals seemingly for fun, against taller, well-built defenders.
#1 Lionel Messi (Barcelona/Argentina) - 91 goals (2012)
Lionel Messi produced arguably the best-ever single-year performance by any player in the history of the game when he scored a staggering 91 goals for club and country in 2012.
During the year, the Argentine became the first player to score 50 goals in a La Liga season, or for that matter, in any top-five league in the continent. But Real Madrid beat Barcelona to the league title. The Blaugrana, who were knocked out by eventual champions Chelsea in the Champions League semi-finals, had to be content with just the Copa Del Rey title.
Messi was imperious in the first half of the 2012-13 season too. He ended the year with more goals than Manchester United, PSG, Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund. What's even more impressive is that Messi conjured this tally of 91 goals for the year in just 69 games!
During the year, the Argentine scored 79 goals for his club and 12 for Argentina. By doing so, he broke Gerd Muller's record of most goals (85 goals) by a player in a calendar year. Though Messi averaged a staggering 1.32 goals per game that year, it was a tad short of Muller's 1.42 (85 goals in 60 games).
Thanks to his exploits that year, Messi became the first player to win four consecutive Ballon d'Or awards.
