Modern football's two greatest players Messi and Ronaldo prepare to tango in new surroundings

Independent

By Miguel Delaney

It was a message that wasn’t expected, and certainly not that quickly. Ahead of last season’s Champions League knockout stages, BT did an entire programme on how Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland are the future of football, the new pair set to dominate the world.

It had clearly riled Cristiano Ronaldo. Before Rio Ferdinand was even off air, the pundit’s phone pinged with a message. It was from Ronaldo.

“It’s not over,” it read.

It may even be starting anew. Leo Messi wasn’t riled by such superficialities but he was riled by the manner of Barcelona’s elimination to Paris Saint-Germain last season. Even though he didn’t want to leave Camp Nou, the state of the team was a factor.

Modern football’s two greatest players moving clubs in the same summer is another historic development in their epic duel, and is certainly no coincidence. One figure who has worked with Ronaldo says his decision to leave Juventus was “100pc” influenced by Messi moving to PSG.

The Portuguese star was already regretting his transfer to Serie A, and felt the Italian club were a long way from challenging for the Champions League. His great rival putting himself in prime position to win it again, as well as another Ballon d’Or, clarified Ronaldo’s thinking.

“He had to act,” one source says. “That’s what a real competitor does.” It was time to go. So, for arguably the first time in at least three years – and in what might well be the last significant chapters of their careers – Messi and Ronaldo once again frame a new Champions League season.

More than a last dance, it’s a last tango.

The two greatest players of the modern football age are again driving each other, looking for that grandiose last victory. And they’ve taken that personally.

“It’s more about themselves,” Ferdinand says. “I don’t think they care about Mbappe and Haaland. They’re more interested in their own legacies, continuing their success.

“They were at clubs who had very little chance of winning the Champions League in Juventus and Barcelona, in the situations they were in.

“They’ve both joined clubs now with definite potential to actually challenge in Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain.”

Both players also enhance that potential. For all the debate about Messi and Ronaldo as they reach their mid-thirties, one thing is absolutely certain. They still offer the individual moments of brilliance to win any game. That is especially potent in a knockout competition, even if this is the first Champions League season denied the sudden fatal stroke of an away goal with the rule removed. It can carry a team to the trophy.

And yet that sporting tension between Messi and Ronaldo – as well as Mbappe and Haaland – is not the only one that drives this Champions League. There’s also the tension between the system and the individual.

For all the qualities of these two greats, they’re at a point in their careers where they come with significant compromises.

The other side of their moves is that Juventus actively wanted to get rid of Ronaldo and many Barcelona officials could see the logic in losing Messi.

The two exert an immense gravitational pull on a team. That’s in terms of budget and tactics, effectively limiting what you can do.

Juve and Barca found they couldn’t move forward off the pitch. On it, their teams had to play a certain way.

It immediately puts United and PSG on one side of a clear divide between the main contenders.

Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Bayern Munich all represent ‘system’ teams. PSG, United and Real Madrid represent teams built on accommodating individuals.

The latter is because these individuals do consistently offer solutions, but they also leave questions. With Messi, it is whether enough players will actually press for PSG to work.

That’s all the more pronounced an issue since pressing is the foundational principle of Mauricio Pochettino’s managerial ethos.

It’s why he has so far been best suited to a hungry young squad, who are more willing to just run.

There is at least the possibility that this is another grand mismatch, another sign of how PSG have been put together with no real planning or ideology.

The feeling in the game is that Pochettino may have to significantly compromise his approach, or else PSG could just be cut open in the semi-finals again like City did last season. It certainly won’t be a pure Pochettino system.

Ferdinand, who twice played against Messi at the Argentinian’s physical peak, feels it can work.

“I think he’ll probably be played as a false nine,” Ferdinand says. “If he plays centrally, and Mbappe’s coming in off the left, all the space to run into, with Neymar probing from behind as well, that’s a mouthwatering prospect.

“Messi can still do what he did to us. He still plays the game in bursts. He is always able to turn a game with a turn of pace. I still think he’s got that ability to put you off balance and then he’s gone. There’s not a way at getting back at him. He’s away, and he’s releasing or shooting.”

If Messi has dropped further back on the pitch, Ronaldo has gone further forward. He must now be the fixed focal point of any team he plays in.

This can make his sides predictable, but comes with the significant offset that he has been the greatest guarantee of goals in the world.

It is why Ferdinand rejects some of the criticism of Ronaldo from Juve.

“I think that’s people over there probably connected to the club, or having an emotional attachment to the club, being a bit biased or unhappy he’s left.

“He’s gone there and outscored everyone at the club, he’s outscored everybody else. He was the top scorer in the league last season.

“When you’ve got a player of his calibre, he’s earned the right for you to build the team around him, and for people to adapt to the way he plays.”

It is far from impossible that United emulate what Madrid did with Ronaldo between 2015 and 2018, and win a Champions League through individual brilliance and moments.

Like Solskjaer, Zinedine Zidane was far from an ideology manager. Like that Madrid, United have exceptional attacking options, who can impose a structure on a team through their quality.

It is up there with PSG as the best array of forward players in the competition.

There is still the inherent danger…

Report

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments