Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo make Champions League history they didn’t want in glimpse of new future
It is, really, much more than the end of an era. It is a psychological shift for the entire Champions League.
For the first time since 2005, and the first time since both have been senior professionals, neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi are in the Champions League quarter-finals. The two great totems of the modern game aren’t there, obscuring the view of the final path, occupying the focus of anyone they face. The way has been cleared.
Opposition teams don’t have to worry about two players who have collectively given the game more to worry about for far longer than anyone else in history.
If much of this seems to focus on the psychological aspect of the duo, the emotional effect, that has tangible relevance.
These last-16 ties actually emphasised they no longer have the impact they used to. It is mostly memory now, image.
The idea that they have the individual magic to transform any situation – that anything is possible once they are on the pitch – is less and less true. That became all too apparent in these eliminations. They just couldn’t impact or influence games in the way they used to. Their gravitational effect has dissipated.
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Two football deities have fallen to earth, and look human after all.
This was illustrated in extremely abrupt fashion for Messi.
Mere moments after he had reminded us of his greatness with an astonishing goal that should go down as one of the best of his career, he missed something as simple as a spot-kick. It wasn’t the first time that has happened at a key moment with Messi, but the context made this more weighted when it comes to his legacy. Unlike 2012 against Chelsea or the 2016 Cope America, there isn’t that much time left for him to rectify it.
Ronaldo couldn’t even muster a goal against Porto. He did offer a fine assist for Federico Chiesa’s first strike, but this was the kind of Teddy Sheringham-style astute play that comes from a player adapting his ability to age, rather than the devastating influence he is renowned for.
It was also all he did, other than sending one relatively easy header wide. Again, human after all.
All of this is why their era is passing. It is not something happening to them, or around them. It is happening because of waning powers, that has left them where they are, actually influencing the fact the teams they are in are incomplete.
It may do more than affect the Champions League. It may affect their futures.
Given how Ronaldo plays, and how he requires an entire team to be adapted around him, what sophisticated modern club is going to pay the kind of wages he wants?
It is similar with Messi. It also seems that one option he had is being closed off.
Manchester City were quick to dismiss recent speculation about their interest, and repeated sources back this up. The idea of investing so much in a player well into his mid-30s just makes little sense. It is why City’s targets are now all under the age of 24. That is where the value is.
Among those targets are of course Erling Braut Haaland and Kylian Mbappe. These two naturally scored this week, where their predecessors didn’t. They are the future, as well as the best value.
As regards that future, it may be why this is the end of an era in another sense. Ronaldo and Messi may soon have hard decisions to make.
It almost sounds absurd to say it for two players that have reached incredible levels, but there is the increasing question of whether they’re even worth what they would want.
They may have the relative ignominy of having to reduce their demands. If not, their futures may lie outside the Champions League altogether. They may have to look even further afield.
It takes quite a mental shift to imagine that.
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