2024 is the 5th year of the third decade of the 21st century, the world has changed so much compared to the time when we first entered the new millennium. More than 20 years ago, smartphones and social networks were still very strange concepts.
In the football field, the speed of change is even faster. For the simple reason that the career lifespan of a player is very short. If life is 10 years, then the peak period of a player is only about 5 years, it is very rare to witness cases of maintaining performance for 10 years.
In 2004, the player who won the Ballon d'Or was Andriy Shevchenko. Just 2 years later, at the age of 30, the famous Ukrainian striker's career began to decline when he decided to move to Chelsea. 30 years old is also considered the milestone of turning the other side of the career slope.
Alongside Sheva, the early 2000s saw a proliferation of talented strikers and the popularity of the 4-4-2 formation. One of the most iconic striker pairings in a typical 4-4-2 team was Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp at Arsenal.
The 2003-04 season marked the most brilliant milestone in the history of the "London Gunners", when Arsene Wenger and his team won the Premier League with an unbeaten record. After that championship, 20 years of water and clouds passed, witnessing many changes of the times, Arsenal has not been able to win the Premier League again.
Arsenal's history might have been different if they had successfully recruited one of the two young talents Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. Coach Arsene Wenger once confided that one of the things he regretted for the rest of his life was not signing a contract with C. Ronaldo.
"There was a time when I was very close to recruiting him. I regret not only not recruiting C. Ronaldo, but also because he later joined Man Utd. Until now, I still feel hurt about this incident," he said.
Regarding the failed attempt to sign Messi, Wenger once revealed: "We discussed with Lionel Messi when recruiting Fabregas, because Messi is a teammate of Fabregas's age." The plan failed because Messi could not apply for a work permit in the UK.
Of course, as the famous saying from Wenger's hometown goes: "With an if, one can put Paris in a bottle". Perhaps only one thing remains the same, that is the talent that transcends space and time of C. Ronaldo and Messi.
In the early 2000s, when C. Ronaldo and Messi started their careers, it was difficult to imagine the development and achievements of these two superstars later. When he debuted for Man Utd, the young Portuguese talent was known as the heir to David Beckham's right-wing position in the popular 4-4-2 formation.
Meanwhile, the young star who grew up in La Masia was trained to become a winger in the traditional 4-3-3 formation at Barcelona. Perhaps Messi's familiar position in the youth teams was left winger, but when he stepped up to the first team, La Pulga moved to the right wing to avoid playing in the same position as superstar Ronaldinho.
Thus, the starting positions of Messi and C. Ronaldo are both on the wing, with the task of holding the ball and creating goals for the strikers. However, due to their outstanding talent, Messi and C. Ronaldo quickly surpassed the narrow space of wing players and introduced many unique "updated versions" throughout their careers.
For C. Ronaldo, the Portuguese player soon escaped from the skinny appearance and the fancy playing style of a winger to become a prolific, fast and effective winger. When joining Real Madrid, CR7 further honed his goalscoring skills to become sharper.
C. Ronaldo is almost the perfect model of a goalscorer. He has achieved a terrifying scoring efficiency (438 goals in 450 matches for Real Madrid) based on the foundation of terrifying speed, skillful technique, sharpness in front of the goal and especially possessing rich finishing talent.
CR7 not only scores from close-range shots, he is extremely good at long-range shots, has excellent left-footed (weak) shots, has one of the best heading abilities in history, and sometimes creates unbelievable overhead kicks.
As age gradually became a burden, affecting his speed and flexibility, C. Ronaldo transformed into a formidable striker for the Portuguese national team, Juventus, Man Utd and now Al Nassr. Since leaving Real Madrid at the age of 33, CR7 has still scored more than 200 goals for the national team and clubs.
For Messi, the Argentine superstar's space cannot be delineated by position, even though he was the protagonist of perhaps the most remarkable tactical positional adjustment in the past twenty years, when he became a "false 9" in coach Pep Guardiola's 4-3-3 formation at Barcelona.
Contrary to the idea that a center forward must be tall to dribble the ball, La Pulga's superb talent allowed the Spanish coach to boldly put him in the middle, where he would have a greater influence.
As a result, in the three seasons 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13, a period of time mainly playing in the "false 9" position, Messi achieved the highest scoring efficiency of his career, with 186 goals in 165 appearances for Barcelona.
However, as mentioned, when mentioning Messi, we cannot only mention the terrible scoring efficiency of a super striker. In addition, La Pulga is also a great playmaker as well as the number one dribbling master on the planet.
As he ages, Messi tends to drop deeper to participate in the organization of the game as well as launch attacks. Of course, in any position or role, the Argentine superstar is the best.
To put it in general, if C. Ronaldo is comprehensive in attacking skills, Messi is omnipotent in every position participating in the attack. Besides that outstanding space, both of these superstars have dominated world football with their incredible endurance.
Simply put, from the time C. Ronaldo won his first Ballon d'Or (2008) to when Messi won this noble title most recently (2023), the duo's era has lasted 15 years.
Many times Messi or C. Ronaldo made anti-fans feel embarrassed by their prejudiced criticism.
C. Ronaldo is a symbol of the will to overcome adversity. CR7's career has always been associated with being compared, which means he is always a worse version of a certain comparison model given by those who dislike him.
In his early days playing for Man Utd, the first impression of the young talent from Portugal came from behind. On his shirt was printed the name and shirt number copyrighted by the most famous football star of the time.
The comparison was inevitable. Very quickly, C.Ronaldo was criticized for not being as skillful and dribbling as Ronaldo (Brazil), nor being able to cross the ball or take free kicks as well as Beckham.
CR7 was also criticized for his overly complicated and ineffective playing style. That pressure caused the young Portuguese talent to experience a period of "blindness" at Old Trafford.
However, with will and effort, C. Ronaldo soon introduced a different version, not like Ronaldo and not learning from Beckham. As mentioned, it is a complete winger, both energetic and fast, with both feet as one and excellent header.
During his time at Real Madrid, C. Ronaldo was compared to Messi himself. The argument was that Messi was more talented, friendlier, and of course more successful than C. Ronaldo. At one point, the "score" of the Golden Ball and the Champions League championship between La Pulga and CR7 was extended to 4-1.
And once again, with extraordinary will and effort, C. Ronaldo leveled the gap and made the great competition with Messi more fierce than ever.
Another example is that for a long time, C. Ronaldo was always ridiculed as a "small player in big matches" or only knew how to score easy goals. Finally, CR7 made everyone silent when he became the player who scored the most goals in the history of the Champions League, the most prestigious tournament in Europe.
The adversity Messi overcame was a different scenario. La Pulga was extremely successful at club level, but had to go through long, painful years at national level and endure countless unfair criticisms from his homeland.
Despite being a gentle player, Messi's debut with the Argentina national team with a red card was a cruel fate. During the years when La Pulga played the role of leader, Albiceleste continuously suffered bitter defeats in the finals of Copa America 2015, 2016 and World Cup 2014.
Messi was so desperate that he announced his retirement from the national team after the 2016 Copa America final. "I have tried my best. For me, my journey with the national team is over. The decision has been made," La Pulga said in extreme bitterness.
Despite Messi's "best efforts", many people in his home country of Argentina still consider him a "foreign product" because he left his homeland at a young age. "The Catalan in Argentina" is how people still satirize Messi in Albiceleste.
They forgot the burning love La Pulga always had for his homeland. Luckily for Albiceleste, for Argentine football and probably fans around the world, Messi stood up to overcome.
The result he achieved could not be sweeter. After winning the Copa America 2021 championship to end a nearly 20-year title drought, Messi brought Argentina to the highest peak at the 2022 World Cup. Messi became a national hero, a symbol of the country. A perfect and emotional ending.
Messi and C. Ronaldo have both retired from top-level football in Europe. Messi went to the US to play for Inter Miami. C. Ronaldo went to Saudi Arabia to play for Al-Nassr. As usual, both have overcome prejudices and created an unbelievable effect.
The Portuguese superstar ended 2023 with 54 goals, two more than Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane, to become the player with the most goals of the year.
In the 2023-24 season alone, CR7 is leading the scoring list in the Saudi Arabian National Championship, with 20 goals. In addition, C. Ronaldo is also the number one passer in the tournament, with 9 assists for teammates to score.
Thus, on average, every 90 minutes, C. Ronaldo contributes 1.65 goals or every 54 minutes of play, he directly contributes to a goal. Thanks to CR7's inspiration, Al Nassr is fiercely competing with Al Hilal for the top spot, but Al Hilal is the team that has the upper hand with 2 more points.
Last season, C. Ronaldo and his teammates could only finish second, behind Al Ittihad. That shows the fierceness of the Saudi Arabian National Championship and further confirms that, despite being 38 years old, CR7 still refuses to grow old or go to the Middle East to retire.
In terms of effect, when Al Nassr announced the successful recruitment of C. Ronaldo exactly one year ago, this team had an Instagram account with 823,000 followers.
This number increased to 7.8 million in four days and a year later reached 22.4 million, almost equal to Tottenham Hotspur (16.5 million), Aston Villa (3.7 million) and Newcastle United (2.6 million) combined.
In the US, Messi also did not age when he just arrived and led Inter Miami to the Leagues Cup championship, the first title in the history of this team. With 10 goals in just 7 matches and breathtaking scenarios, La Pulga created a real fever.
Statistics show that Inter Miami's attendance has increased by 40% since Messi's arrival. In matches where teams "get" to host La Pulga and his teammates, attendance has also skyrocketed. A typical example is the Chicago Fire's match at Soldier Field, with a record 62,124.
When Messi and C. Ronaldo continue to explode every time they step on the field and create such terrible effects, there is no reason not to expect this duo to shine one last time on big stages. This year, C. Ronaldo will join the Portuguese team to attend Euro 2024, while Messi and his teammates will defend the title at Copa America 2024.
After so many times Messi and C. Ronaldo proudly surpassed all limits and extinguished prejudices, perhaps anyone must be hesitant to judge this duo. Football has never witnessed such a magnificent phenomenon!
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