2012 Ballon d’Or Winner: Lionel Messi. History Maker. Record Breaker

Lionel Messi’s fourth Ballon d’Or success in a row was in itself groundbreaking.

The Argentine eclipsed Johan Cruyff’s trio of wins (1971, 1973, 1974) and Michel Platini’s three consecutive triumphs from 1983 to 1985.

His year as a whole was packed with numerous records and achievements. The 2011/12 campaign not only elevated his game to a new level but also seemingly heightened the performance of one Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portuguese star did all he could to wrestle football’s most prestigious individual prize from his rival’s hands.

Lionel Messi would have to become both a history maker and record breaker to stop him.

Two Legends In A Two Horse Race

By 2012, Cristiano Ronaldo had won just a single Ballon d’Or following his world-beating 2007/08 season with Manchester United that saw him score 42 goals in all competitions. As the year drew to a close and with the award looming large, Ronaldo produced a calendar year that firmly put him in contention for a second individual title.

Messi and Ronaldo had been driving each other forwards and upwards since the turn of the decade with the lead up to this latest Ballon d’Or honour being no different.

During the 2011/12 season, both men had managed to claim one trophy a piece with their respective clubs, Ronaldo winning the La Liga title whilst his Argentine rival secured the Copa del Rey. In the Champions League, Messi was on fire – scoring 14 goals in just 11 European appearances whilst Ronaldo struck ten times in as many Champions League games.

On the international stage, CR7 won 13 caps and scored five goals for his country yet Messi found the net on 12 occasions in the space of only nine games.

Domestically, Ronaldo had a remarkable 2011/12 season, scoring 60 goals for Real Madrid across 55 games – but it wouldn’t be enough to halt Messi’s Ballon d’Or charge.

Goals Reign Supreme

The 2011/12 La Liga season, which has 38 games, saw two forwards at the absolute peak of their goal scoring capabilities and despite Ronaldo’s sensational campaign – Messi hit back with a miraculous 73 goals in 60 appearances.

Yet it was his performance across the calendar year that set him apart.

In 2012, Lionel Messi scored an astonishing 91 goals, which shattered the previous record (85 goals) held by Bayern Munich and Germany’s Gerd Muller since 1972.

He scored 59 times in La Liga, 13 strikes in the Champions League, five goals in the Copa del Rey and two in the Spanish Super Cup plus a further 12 goals whilst with the Argentina national side.

Across twelve months, the Argentine netted 14 penalties and hit nine hat-tricks.

Victory in the 2012 Ballon d’Or likely came down to a matter of firepower with perhaps the two greatest players of all-time going head to head in an attempt to outgun one another. In the end it was Argentinian genius Lionel Messi who fought off the competition to register an unprecedented amount of goals and with it, forever writing his name into football’s history books.

2012 Ballon d’Or Top 20

Trivia

In 2011/12, Lionel Messi broke his own Champions League goals record by scoring 14 times across the competition in a single season – surpassing his previous total of 12 strikes during the 2010/11 campaign.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s 60 goals in 2011/12 was his second highest career tally with his greatest scoring season arriving three seasons later and a ridiculous 61 strikes!

Andrés Iniesta played 14 times for Spain in 2012. He is currently 5th on the list of most capped Spanish players having featured 131 times for his country from 2006 to 2018.