Football day without Ronaldo and Messi

The final farewell is coming

There was once a hypothesis that this summer World Cup was the last time Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo stood on the same stage. At the age of 39 and 41, it is hard to believe that they can continue to fight through a 4-year cycle to appear in 2030.

For various reasons, the tournament has sown doubts about the stopping point of both. Messi's miracle, with 8 goals and 4 assists, shows that he can still continue the "ghostly walking" style for a while longer.

Ronaldo's tears on the field and post-match statements again showed that he could not accept that "God of Time" had called his name.

The statements about Portugal's number of titles before and after Cristiano, about the EURO 2016 championship with a value equivalent to the World Cup sound like someone is trying, but failing, to convince themselves that they are satisfied with their fate.

Messi winning the 2022 World Cup does not make him feel inferior. Perhaps the attraction of the World Cup at home in Portugal is too great to resist.

However, in an interview with Vogue, Ronaldo revealed that his current contract with Al-Nassr may be the last. As if finally accepting the idea of retirement. This admission took place in the same week when his biggest rival, Messi, also hinted at hanging up his boots.

Messi's contract at Inter Miami lasts until 2028, but the departure of his father, Mr. Jorge, makes the future uncertain. When connection is lost, reasons to continue become harder to find. "I don't know how to continue. I used to only know how to play football, and now I'm really not sure how long I can continue playing," Messi wrote in a post on social media.

The Messi - Ronaldo confrontation has dominated this sport since 2008, when they first met in the Champions League semi-finals. For 15 years, they have faced 36 official matches, sharing nearly 3,000 minutes on the pitch. They turned El Clasico into a global event that cannot be missed and challenged each other to break records. La Liga is a battlefield for the Ballon d'Or that they have divided equally for 10 consecutive years - until Messi has 3 more titles in the twilight of his career.

However, in the past 5 years, Messi's persistence in genius has almost reversed the predictions that existed for 2 decades before. Leading Argentina to 2 Copa America and World Cup 2022 championships, he has completed the remaining goals in his career. Previously, Ronaldo's victory at EURO 2016 and championship titles in England, Spain, Italy added weight to the argument that he is more comprehensive and has better adaptability.

These glories, highlighted by more enchanting moments at the 2026 World Cup, have reshaped the debate.

It's no longer Messi versus Ronaldo. It's Messi and the rest. Standing above all other players in their era is an extraordinary achievement, but for most of their careers, they have been inseparable. Goals, titles, heritage.

Messi's excellence is certainly part of the motivation to push Ronaldo, a less inborn player, to reach extraordinary heights - which in some years even surpassed the Argentine superstar.

Heritage is a subjective, unmeasurable term. Ronaldo has nearly 1,000 goals and holds the record for the most matches and international goals. Messi won 8 Golden Balls, recorded 91 goals in a calendar year and owns the most European Golden Shoes.

The list of records is very long, but choosing their final destination is a bet on their own legacy. There is no romantic return to Barcelona or Newell’s Old Boys for Messi. There is no full year at Sporting CP or Nacional, where Ronaldo started on Madeira Island.

Messi moved to PSG in 2021 and then to Inter Miami in the US. Ronaldo started Saudi Arabia's ambition to become a football superpower when he moved to Al-Nassr.

It's a pity that there was no "final dance" between the two at the World Cup. Instead, their last encounter was the friendly match in 2023 between PSG and Al-Nassr in Riyadh. That was their first farewell to the world stage. Now, the final farewell is coming, perhaps sooner than many people expected.

Is the football world ready?

Kylian Mbappe, Lamine Yamal and Erling Haaland are expected to capture the focus of attention, but can they fill it in the same way?

The king sport is different now, more fragmented. Young audiences watch football through shorter clips than sitting and watching for 90 minutes. The connection is more transactional and easier to change with teams, driven by social networks, meaning that millions of people often follow a player rather than a team.

Messi and Ronaldo at their peak will be perfect role models for this era.

What makes Messi and Ronaldo special in the era of Messi and Ronaldo is that while competing individually, they must also achieve a dominant position for the team. To become king, you must bring home the crown for your team.

Football is of course a team sport and there is no shortage of fascinating characters. The only problem is that, to this day, no player has evoked imagination in the way that Messi at the age of 39 can do. No one attracts as much attention to ups and downs in his twilight years as Ronaldo.

They still dominate, even when they are shadows that are gradually fading. If they soon become the past, because most of their careers have taken place in parallel, it would be perfect if they stepped out of the stage together. A final piece for the symmetry of the story.