Gautam Bhattacharyya, Sports Editor, says: There is no doubt that the World Cup has lost its headline acts on Saturday night when the game’s two biggest stars — Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo — were shown the exit door after their teams were eliminated in the round of 16.
Yes, their defeat has once again shown that football is a team game and there is only that much an individual can achieve, but one of the highlights of Russia 2018 was it was a last chance saloon for both these players to have a go at the game’s biggest prize which remained elusive for them.
While no word on their future in international football is forthcoming at the time of writing this, it’s obvious that Messi, now 31, and Ronaldo, 33, is unlikely to risk their participation at football’s greatest stage four years hence to risk diluting their reputation.
Watch: Will the World Cup miss Messi and Ronaldo?
The history of World Cup shows a strange bias towards footballing aristocracy, with the trophy being shared between a handful of the European superpowers and the two Latin American giants Brazil and Argentina in turns — with Uruguay coming to the party only in the tournament’s formative years. Each edition of the showpiece has been the stage of the star players of each generation — be it Pele, Eusebio in the Sixties, Johan Cruyff or Franz Beckenbauer in the Seventies — followed, of course, by Diego Maradona in Eighties.
Messi and Ronaldo, who had a monopolistic lease over Fifa’s Ballon d’Or honours for the last decade and lent the ‘El Clasico’ the tag of the most important match in club football for the last decade or do, were desperate to add the World Cup on their shelves — but then there are shining examples of a Cryuff or George Best who failed to do so.
You cannot deny the importance of star value in any sport to sustain its appeal and economics, more so in football. This is why the world is already heralding the arrival of a Kylian Mbappe to carry on the mantle of the Big Two.
No
Ashley Hammond, Senior Reporter, says: No — Football, like many things in life, is about teamwork not individuals. We may reminisce about how Pele and Diego Maradona ruled the world single-handedly, but that is absolute nonsense. Both were great players in great teams.
Great players are by-products of great teams — you can’t be one without the other. Messi and Ronaldo may have great teams around them to make them great at Barcelona and Real Madrid, but they don’t have great teams around them at Argentina or Portugal.
Any belief that they would somehow carry these sides to glory at this World Cup regardless was seriously deluded. I would say the World Cup is actually better off without them in the latter stages, because although you may miss their moments of individual flair, we can now finally focus on what football is all about.
The team that wins this tournament will be a team in the truest sense of the word, and the real joy of watching football comes from witnessing that connection between eleven, not one. Don’t get confused though, within the winning team there may inevitably be a standout player, but that doesn’t mean he did it alone, or won it for them.
Football has sadly gravitated more towards cult icons and mythology. The Ballon d’Or, for example, meant nothing a decade ago before Messi and Ronaldo shared 10 each and climbed Forbes rich lists for endorsements. None of this equates to actually winning a World Cup as a team though, and the former should never overtake the latter.
In football, no one is bigger than the badge and everything going forward in this tournament will now be better off without Messi and Ronaldo — knowing that it’s that message that will be heard over the noise.
