At first glance the Bayern Munich and West Germany striker’s work was underwhelming – until you realise he was doing it every week, season after season
Comparisons are odious and nearly always absurdly reductive but here we go anyway. In 2012 Lionel Messi set a new record for goals scored in a calendar year. Let’s not try too hard to be iconoclastic: his tally of 91 for Barcelona and Argentina in 2012 was one of football’s monumental achievements, a jaw-dropping effort over the long haul, even if the only silverware it earned him that year was the Copa del Rey. Poor Leo did not get too much bang for his buck there.
Related: ‘The greatest striker’: Gerd Müller, legendary German forward, dies aged 75
