BARCELONA – Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The two athletes who have marked the world of football in the last 15 years, are saying goodbye to the decade installed on an increasingly unstable throne. The emergence of players like Mbappé or Haaland mainly sheds light on a change of order that both Argentines and Portuguese are reluctant to leave, closing the year 2020 in which their numbers continued to shine exponentially.
The year of the coronavirus had an exceptional significance in all fields, and in sports, and raised an unknown football, with the empty stands and orphaned cracks of that fan dedicated to his excellence, in a fact that meant especially the Argentine. His “it’s horrible to play without people” is a perfect summary of the situation.
Cristiano Ronaldo has kept his football position unchanged in a certain way. He continued to score goals, winning the League with Juventus again, although he could not carry it into the Champions League, closing the continental year with the assault on Camp Nou, where he met his old rival in a match in which the winner was clear. … And face 2021 with the same ambitions as before. On the way to 36, sometimes it seems that time does not pass for the Portuguese, although, of course, it is understood that in reality it does.
In the case of Messi, a few days before entering another 2021, because he will have in hand the sporting decision of his future at the end of the season, it was special in many ways. It was the year of his public statements in which he left no one indifferent, warning again and again of the problems of the club, of the team, of his distrust of a board of directors and president that he faced directly. Even that “I stay because I can’t leave” that remained so marked for all of Barcelona.
Messi’s year will be hard to forget. Too many things have happened, on and off the field, to ignore the fact that the Argentine star has suffered a terrible 2020 that is understood to want to leave behind as soon as possible.
It began with the dismissal of Valverde, whom he said goodbye to, which prompted him to face then-technical secretary Eric Abidal in January, and continued his few deals with Quique Setién and the collapse of Barça in a league that escaped after closure. , continued with the Lisbon disaster that confirmed the worst wishes around the Camp Nou …
And it ended, on August 25, with the announcement of his intention to leave the club taking advantage of a clause of his contract that, already expired, he could not use, doomed to remain in this Barcelona in continuous earthquake.
As for football, in the first person, the Barça captain saw his figure become more earthy. At the age of 33, his scoring performance decreased: from the 51 goals he scored in 2018 (in 52 games) and from the 50 he scored in 2019 (in 58 games), in the last year, in the absence of the game that will close it against Eibar, their number has dropped to 27 goals in 52 matches.
Barça observed this loss of goals exponentially, because after the poker they scored against Eibar in February, after the closing they scored four goals in ten games, of which the Barça team could only win six and that explains the loss of leadership and title. .
The same happened in the Champions League: if he scored a goal that opened the victory over Napoli in the round of 16, his performance in Lisbon was only invisible, in the worst night in European history for Barcelona against Bayern Munich; in the same way he could not lead his team in the elimination of the Cup against Athletic de Bilbao.
Messi closes the year 2020 without clarifying whether his future will continue to be linked with Barcelona beyond the end of the season and observing how the division grows among Barça club fans around his figure, whose ancestry remains indisputable … but with the first voices that warns of a decline in performance that should, some believe, begin to rethink the future of the team under his leadership.
Raised on the altar as the greatest historical scorer in a single club after defeating the legendary Pelé del Santos, Leo recounts the last days of this 2020 placed at the top, but aware that he is on the countdown. Two decades after, as a child, he arrived in Barcelona ready to fulfill his dream, the future begins to take shape around him in a different way.
CRISTIANO RONALDO
In the case of Cristiano Ronaldo, his figure began to notice the passage of time … But if his football significance can be understood in decline, his ability to score remains unchanged, as it seems in the first person: unavailable for discouragement and willing to fights continue to continue to the top.
The Portuguese striker closed the year keeping his numbers: 42 goals in 40 games and being transcendental in a Juventus with which he won the Scudetto again in July, although he could not avoid, in August, the disappointment of being out of the League Champions in the second round of the final against Olympique de Lyon.
Cristiano, Messi’s great rival for the last 15 years, has shown that his identification, dedication, passion and commitment to football continue to be that of the first day, as well as that of the young man who began to be seen in Portugal, exploded in Manchester United became great at Real Madrid … And continues to make people talk at Juventus.
It is proof that we are nearing the end of an era. Mbappé and Haaland come to the forefront of a new batch of cracks that, sooner or later, will replace the two greats of this 21st century on the podium. The cracks that kept the challenge day by day, match by match, Ballon d’Or to Ballon d’Or to become the two football references that remained in the top for the longest time. And they continue to stay … Although their time is up.