Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas holds the record for most awards (alongside Gianluigi Buffon and Manuel Neuer), having won the prize five consecutive times between 2008 and 2012.
Neuer has won it all, and redefined his position at the same time. Previous greats have done most of their best work with their hands. Other sweeper-keepers haven't scaled nearly the same heights in their careers. Goodness, Neuer was almost Bayern's best outfield player in the Champions League final!
Buffon and Neuer are two great keepers. They certainly have different styles but they are both extremely good and effective. It will be good to see them pitted against each other. It's difficult to say who is better between Buffon and Neuer.
While Ronaldo currently has more goals overall, Messi has the edge in the scoring department, with a higher season average (39.5 to 35), having hit a high of 73 goals in 2011-12.
Manchester City have been named the world's richest football club in the latest edition of Deloitte's Football Money League. City topped the list, which is based on revenue, for the first time after increasing their income to €645m (£571m) in 2020-21 – despite the effects of the pandemic.
He has won 32 trophies in his career, including seven league titles, five UEFA Champions Leagues, one UEFA European Championship, and one UEFA Nations League.
A goalkeeper's crucial saves can be the difference between a win and a loss for a team. Inter Milan's Samir Handanovic is the most successful goalkeeper when it comes to stopping penalties as he has managed to save 38 penalties in his career so far, the most in history.
Total wins for FC Barcelona: 96. Total wins for Real Madrid: 99. Draws: 52.
Lionel Messi's Titles
The current PSG player has 39 titles. The vast majority, 35 to be precise, won them when he played for Barcelona (2004-2021). He also won 3 titles with the Argentine national team and his most recent trophy was the Ligue 1 championship that he won playing for PSG.
Despite this, Liverpool versus Manchester United is widely thought to be one of the biggest and most famous rivalries in football history.
However, given the Portuguese footballer's insane goal-scoring record, Cristiano Ronaldo was the god of football in 2020.
Lionel Messi is arguably the greatest footballer of all time. The seven-time Ballon d'Or winner has had an illustrious career replete with wonderful moments. He is Barcelona's all-time greatest and he produced so many clutch moments for them during his 17-year stay at Camp Nou.
1. Robert Lewandowski. Bayern Munich's striker, Robert Lewandowski has 46 goals in the 2020/21 season.
Casillas won a total of 19 trophies during his 25-year playing career at Real Madrid: three Champions Leagues, three Club World Cup trophies, five LaLiga Santander titles, two Copa del Rey trophies and four Supercopa de Espana titles.
Two of the greatest keepers to ever stand in between the sticks went head to head in a poll – voted for by GiveMeSport fans – and Italian 2006 World Cup winner Buffon won the vote. Despite a quite unbelievable career, Spanish 2010 World Cup winner Iker Casillas failed to beat Italian superstar Buffon.
Even Cristiano Ronaldo, the joint-second top scorer in El Clasico history, and the player with the most hat-tricks in history, never managed to score one against Barcelona. Just five players have managed this feat since the 1980s, and no European player has scored one since 1987.