9:38 AM ET
Gab MarcottiSenior Writer, ESPN FC
It's not a "Last Dance." Neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi has announced their retirement, and neither antheral has already won the biggest prize successful football, the World Cup, which is what the adjacent 5 weeks are each about.
It's not a "Changing of the Guard," either. Sure, they person heirs apparent, but of the 2 evident ones -- Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe -- 1 volition beryllium watching Qatar 2022 connected TV due to the fact that Norway failed to qualify, portion the different is surrounded by truthful overmuch endowment connected a France squad that are already World Champions that it's hard to spot him lasting retired and needing to transportation them the mode Cristiano and Leo did regularly for nine and country. (About Haaland: One bully side-effect of the 2026 tourney successful the U.S., Mexico and Canada being "super-sized" by 50% to see 48 teams means it's acold little apt for superstars to miss out.)
More simply, it's 2 of the champion who ever competed, successful immoderate sport, squeezing retired the last ounces of guile, grit and genius retired of their battle-weary bodies earlier Father Time sends the past grains of soil tumbling down the hourglass.
There's a World Cup last to beryllium played astatine Doha's Lusail Stadium connected Dec. 18. Both are striving to beryllium determination due to the fact that erstwhile the adjacent 1 rolls astir successful July 2026, Ronaldo volition beryllium 41 and Messi 39. While they're made of sterner worldly and the explanation of intolerable isn't "not possible" but alternatively "not yet achieved" to folks similar them, the remainder of america unrecorded successful the existent world, the 1 governed by laws of physics and nature.
Indeed, that's the cruelty of this sport. The long-held (and puerile) mantra that you tin lone beryllium among the G.O.A.Ts if you've won a title -- the thought that dogged legends similar Charles Barkley and Ted Williams -- becomes particularly silly successful this sport. Your squad is determined by commencement and bloodline: you don't get to articulation a contender astatine the extremity of your career. Success oregon nonaccomplishment is determined implicit a specified 7 games, and you lone get your changeable each 4 years, which means astir specified mortals lone get a mates bites of the cherry. (Ronaldo and Messi, of course, don't acceptable that category: For both, this volition beryllium their record-tying 5th World Cup.)
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There's a wrinkle successful this. For the champion portion of the past 15 years oregon so, we thought of them arsenic Number 1 and Number 1A, journeying successful parallel done clip and space, redefining a athletics and a concern arsenic they went along. This time, however, they get successful Doha from precise antithetic places.
Messi, who near Barcelona (after 21 seasons astatine the club) to articulation Paris Saint-Germain 2 summers ago, is present playing immoderate of the champion shot helium has played since turning 30. After a hard archetypal run successful the City of Light, helium returned well-rested past summertime and has flourished alongside Mbappe and Neymar successful PSG's star-studded attack. He leads Ligue 1 successful assists with 10 and, successful each competitions, has scored 12 goals successful 19 starts, nary of them penalties. The past clip helium had this galore non-penalty goals by mid-November was the 2018-19 season.
He besides has the serenity of having delivered a large trophy for Argentina -- the 2021 Copa America, made sweeter by the information that it was won successful Brazil, against Brazil. And, of course, helium is supported by an Argentina broadside that person gone 35 games undefeated, dating backmost to July 2019: If they debar decision successful the radical stage, they volition interruption the grounds of 37 games, held by Italy.
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Ronaldo's World Cup preparation, connected the different hand, has been thing but smooth. Following the assignment of a caller manager, Erik Ten Hag, astatine Manchester United, determination were superior questions astir whether it made consciousness for him to beryllium portion of the club's semipermanent rebuild fixed his property and benignant of play. That question, successful galore ways, was answered connected the pitch: He made conscionable 4 league starts done mid-November, scoring a azygous goal. The past clip that happened was 19 years ago, his debut play successful his archetypal stint astatine United, erstwhile helium was a specified 18 years old.
And that was earlier the bombshell interview helium gave to Piers Morgan successful which helium lambasted the club, saying helium had "no respect" for Ten Hag. It was the benignant of unauthorised, full-frontal barrage that apt means helium volition ne'er play for United again.
For a subordinate whose vocation has been built astir regular and certainty -- six years astatine Sporting, six astatine Manchester United, 9 astatine Real Madrid, 3 astatine Juventus -- helium is present taking, by choice, a leap into a void, sacrificing popularity (at slightest among United fans) for... what? Maybe adjacent helium doesn't know; possibly helium conscionable wanted the clarity of wiping the slate and being capable to absorption solely connected Qatar and past worrying astir what, if anything, comes adjacent successful January.
If determination is simply a communal thread present different than their intertwined legacy, it's that some men suffered superior setbacks successful the run-up to the World Cup.
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Ronaldo is surviving done it now. Imagine being the grounds goalscorer successful some men's planetary shot and nine football, ideate having been the third-leading scorer successful the Premier League conscionable past season, and present uncovering yourself with a azygous league goal. Messi had his a twelvemonth ago. An affectional and tearful farewell to Barcelona, acrimony towards their erstwhile president Jose Maria Bartomeu, a archetypal fractional of the play successful Paris that -- successful a spooky parallel -- besides saw him people conscionable a azygous league extremity astatine this signifier of the season.
But successful life, arsenic successful sports, timing matters. Messi had the worst six months of his vocation with the World Cup a twelvemonth away; Ronaldo is successful the heavy of it close now, and that whitethorn marque each the difference.
World Cups don't make stars similar they utilized to, if lone due to the fact that the crippled is truthful planetary that we cognize astir everything astir about everyone, and determination are precise fewer stars to discover. The adjacent procreation is acceptable to instrumentality implicit and whitethorn adjacent person surpassed them connected the pitch.
And yet, marque nary mistake astir it, for now, successful presumption of narrative, successful presumption of attention, successful presumption of bloody-minded, clock-ticking last-ditch storyline and anticipation for a Hollywood ending, determination is cipher to lucifer them.
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