The LAST HURRAH FOR LIONEL MESSI AND CRISTIANO RONALDO
ALTHOUGH LIONEL MESSI IS TWO YEARS YOUNGER THAN CRISTANO RONALDO, IT WOULD BE DIFFICULT FOR HIM TO CARRY ON UNTIL 2022 IF HE FALLS SHORT IN RUSSIA
No two contemporaries had ever enjoyed such a productive duopoly on European football like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The two have indeed transcended the sport that pits 11 vs 11. The achievements of Messi and Ronaldo are mindboggling. It’s inconceivable that the two gladiatorial players will be upstaged any time soon.
Messi and Ronaldo, however, come up short when they are weighed on the World Cup scale, as neither of them has a winners’ medal in the quadrennial spectacle. Fans of Pele, Diego Maradona, and Zinedine Zidane would tell you that minimum qualification to enter the football pantheon is a World Cup. Of course, not all World Cup winners can aspire to enter the sanctum sanctorum of the beautiful game.
Messi and Ronaldo wouldn’t mind trading their multiple Champions League medals for the ultimate prize at the 2018 Fifa World Cup. For all practical purposes, Russia represents the pair’s last realistic chance. Ronaldo, he of granite body and rippling muscles, is ready to keep playing until he is 40. Given his commitment and the way he takes care of his body, the Portuguese can certainly keep kicking a ball around until midlife crisis but the big question is whether he can inspire his country to the summit in 2022 or 2026 if he fails to do so in 2018. Ronaldo’s legacy is on a firmer ground than Messi’s because he was part of the Portuguese side that defied the odds to win Euro 2016.
Messi has won zilch for his national team. He was the bridesmaid in three tournaments starting from the 2014 World Cup. The final in Rio de Janeiro was tailormade for Messi to stamp his class. Argentina, clearly the better team than Germany at the Maracana, had a glorious opportunity to clinch a third World Cup. The hour came but the man didn’t as an off- colour Messi allowed the match to drift into extra- time. Super Sub Mario Gotze did the rest for Germany.
Messi’s failure to lead Argentina past Chile in two successive Copa America finals was an even more forgettable chapter in a storied career. If Argentina’s fragile mental strength contributed to their meltdown in three finals, the inability of Messi to lead from the front can’t be glossed over either. Maradona was made of sterner stuff. That’s why Argentine fans never get tired of singing his praises. Messi’s serial failures compel one to think that Argentina can also play better without him. Argentina has also been unlucky in not being able to find a midfield maestro who can pull the strings a la Andrea Pirlo or Xavi or Andres Iniesta or Wesley Sneijder. Even their current squad is heavy in the forward line but light in midfield. Although Messi is two years younger than Ronaldo, it would be difficult for him to carry on until 2022 if he falls short in Russia.
There is no doubt that Messi and Ronaldo are both once- in- a- lifetime players but the missing World Cup medal certainly makes their case weaker when they are weighed with Pele, Maradona, and Zidane.