Credits : NDTV Sports


The story started back in 2007 with KAKA winning the ballon d’Or and the two greats named CRISTIANO RONALDO and LIONEL MESSI came into limelight. Since then only 1 player (LUKA MODRIC) except these two in the football history could manage to win that prestigious title in the world of football. Can anyone believe the fact that these two gentlemen could only fight for the top two spots for ten straight years with Ronaldo winning it five times whereas Messi winning six times.

If you asking for the records, then à

Credits : Bleacher report

v Ronaldo has won five champions leagues in two different clubs, five ballon d’Ors, 777 goals, etc.

Credits : Scroll.in


v Messi has won four champions leagues, six ballon d’Ors, 746 goals, etc.

 

 But the question is - what happens when Messi & Ronaldo retire? And Who will replace there boots in the coming years?

Obviously, the answer is You can’t replace two of the finest players in the history. It means, ‘hattricks’ which we all were used to with these players will again become special things in coming time. One hattrick in every 15-16 matches by each of them, the statement is itself a crazier one when one listens to it. And these miracles happen once in a lifetime of every hardcore football fans.

Messi got his first hattrick in 19 years of age while Ronaldo is current all-time leading hattrick maker with 54 hattricks in his pocket.

Coming to the goals per season, a 30 + goals in each season are an average of these superstars in last 10-12 years. Messi has a record of scoring 92 goals in a single calendar year in 2011-12 season. If you talk about Ronaldo, he scored 60+ goals for 4 years straight.

There’s an all-time argument of who the best is. Another shocking thing that we’ll miss is this G.O.A.T level rivalry. We’ve seen it before with debates like who is better between Pele and Maradona, but that was a case of comparing two different periods or eras. But are there any current players who can take on this blazing rivalry kind of a thing to the next level?  May be some critics point out to Mbappe but against who? And its still a point of puzzlement if Mbappe is really at that level. And that’s the key thing that we are all going to miss, the heated rivalry. They used to push each other in every hour, week, month and even year. As a teen I used to sit out for that fire elating moments during every El Clasicos.

It’s not only a concern for critics or people who having a knowledge on football tactics for single match, but it would vastly affect every person in the world who have hardly any knowledge of football but they watch this beautiful game just for sake of watching these two talents.

Now, lets talk about commercial markets and brands. It’s because we are discussing about two of the most marketable athletes in the world. I mean Nike and Adidas would be fine with their business but can loose that spark in coming years after these two legends are gone. Nike has already started its experiments on Mbappe as it’s next big thing.

As we have seen in different sports, till today no one could able to fill the boots of Tiger Woods in Gulf, Micheal Jordan (besides Lebron James) in Basketball, and many more.  

Recently Ronaldo won the accolade of ‘footballer of the century’ and La Pulga (Messi) won his 6th (highest) ballon d’Or in 2019. No doubt, in coming 20-30 years these magical stuffs would become dream for every budding footballer.

The bench mark has been already set. One of the most prominent legacy that these two stars would be leaving is that strong love for this sport in many of our hearts.