The footballers with the highest scoring calendar years of the 21st century | OneFootball

Kylian Mbappe concluded 2025 with one of the most prolific calendar years this century. The French forward scored 66 goals for club and country, in an outstanding individual 12 months for the Real Madrid superstar.

Mbappe's goal-laden year saw him enter the top five highest-scoring calendar years of the 21st century.

The footballers with the highest scoring calendar years of the 21st century

5. Viktor Gyokeres - 62 goals (2024)

Viktor Gyokeres became a household name after signing for Sporting Lisbon. Having honed his trade in England’s second tier, Gyokeres exploded in output in Portugal.

Across two seasons at Sporting, he scored 97 goals in 102 games, including 62 for club and country across all competitions in 2024.

4. Kylian Mbappe - 66 goals (2025)

Kylian Mbappe’s incredible calendar year concluded with 66 goals, making it one of the most prolific years of the 21st century.

After an, albeit exaggerated, modest start in Madrid, Mbappe has become a talismanic figure at the Bernabeu.

He won a maidenEuropean Golden Shoe in his debut year and is in contention to secure a second this time around, despite fierce competition from Erling Haaland and Harry Kane.

Mbappe, undisputedly, is Madrid’s man man and has his sights set on winning big prizes in 2026.

3. Robert Lewandowski - 69 goals (2021)

Robert Lewandowski enjoyed the most prolific calendar year of his career in 2021, as the forward fired 69 goals for Bayern Munich and Poland. Having led Bayern Munich to treble success the previous year, Lewandowski continued to score at an astonishing rate.

The 2020/21 season saw Lewandowski break theBundesliga record for goals in a single season, after netting 41 in just 29 games. A bonkers return.

2. Cristiano Ronaldo - 69 goals (2013)

Cristiano Ronaldo’s best 12-month period also saw 69 goals scored in 2013. Ronaldo romped to 59 goals for Real Madrid and added 10 for Portugal across the year.

Alongside Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema as part of the club’s ‘BBC’ frontline, Ronaldo produced career-best goalscoring form to win both the Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards.

1. Lionel Messi - 91 goals (2012)

Lionel Messi’s world-record year in 2012 looks like a record that may never be beaten. The Argentine genius scored 91 goals for club and country, smashing the 85-goal record of Gerd Muller that had stood since 1972.

Incredibly, Messi averaged a goal every 66 minutes across the entire calendar year, with his most prolific month a 13-goal haul in March.

That run was achieved in just six games and included a five-goal individual destruction of Bayer Leverkusen in theChampions League.