One Last Ride
Many people have been blessed with the ability to watch some of the greatest world footballers of all time in Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for the last 15 years. Messi and Ronaldo have very profound resumes, including 12 combined Ballon D’Or Awards (Messi 7, Ronaldo 5), along with 9 combined champions league titles (Ronaldo 5, Messi 4). They’re also the two highest scoring players in the history of La Liga. Both of them have had international success as well. Ronaldo won the 2016 European Championship with Portugal and Messi won Copa America with Argentina in 2021. There’s still one major piece of hardware missing from both of their resumes; a World Cup Title.
With Ronaldo and Messi both in the twilight of their careers at ages 37 and 35, this year's World Cup in Qatar is most likely their last chance for each to win a World Cup. So far, this World Cup has gone very differently for these aging superstars. Messi has had a much bigger role leading his nation than Ronaldo has. Ronaldo was just benched in their most recent knockout match by Goncalo Ramos who scored a hat trick in his place. On the other hand, Messi has 3 goals in this tournament, 2nd only to Kylian Mbappé of France. It’s evident that soccer is a team sport, which might explain why neither have a World Cup under their belt, but it seems that both of them are on teams that are good enough to get the job done now. Portugal showed that in their 6-1 win over Switzerland earlier this week.
With Argentina and Portugal both headed into their quarterfinal matches this weekend, the dream is still alive for Messi and Ronaldo to achieve that one final accomplishment. Messi and Argentina face the Netherlands on December 9 while Ronaldo and Portugal face Morocco on December 10.
Will Ronaldo enter the starting lineup this time? Will Messi continue to lead Argentina to the promised land? These are all questions that are waiting to be answered and are intriguing to find out. Perhaps we could be awaiting another “Last Dance” documentary 20 years from now from either of these players much like we saw from Michael Jordan in 2020. Leading your country to win the largest soccer tournament in the World which only occurs every 4 years would be an impeccable achievement.
Argentina and Portugal are both in control of their own destinies and if all continues to go well, they would meet in the World Cup Final on December 18. The potential of having Messi and Ronaldo face off in the final of what most likely will be their final World Cups would be fascinating to say the least. Unfortunately, at least one of them will go home empty handed and leave their extraordinary legacy without a World Cup. How much do you think this World Cup will affect the legacies of these two all-time greats?