The careers of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are a journey to eliminate prejudices, with talent that transcends space and time. Of course, there will be times when they have to stop. Maybe 2024.
Prejudice always exists. Over time, when this prejudice is eliminated, another prejudice arises. The careers of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are a journey to eliminate prejudices, with talent that transcends space and time. Of course, there will be times when they have to stop. Maybe 2024.2024 is the 5th year in the third decade of the 21st century. The world has changed so much compared to the time the new millennium entered. More than 20 years ago, smartphones or social networks were still very strange concepts.
In the realm of football, the pace of change is even faster. Because simply, the career life of a football player is very short. If life is several times 10 years, then the peak period of players is only about 5 years, it is very rare to witness cases of maintaining performance for 10 years.In 2004, the player who won the Golden Ball was Andriy Shevchenko. Just 2 years later, at the age of 30, the career of the famous Ukrainian striker began to decline when he decided to move to Chelsea. Turning 30 years old is also considered a milestone to step over to the other side of the career slope.
Besides Sheva, the early 2000s were a period of blossoming talented strikers and the popularity of the 4-4-2 formation. One of the typical striker pairs in a typical team using 4-4-2 is Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp at Arsenal.
The 2003-04 season marked the most brilliant milestone in the history of the “London Gunners”, when Arsene Wenger and his team won the Premier League with an undefeated record. After that championship, 20 years have passed, witnessing many changes in the times, Arsenal has not been able to win the Premier League again.Arsenal’s history might have been different if that day had successfully recruited one of the two young talents Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. Coach Arsene Wenger once confided that one of the things he regretted throughout his life was not signing a contract with C.Ronaldo.
“There was a time when I was very close to recruiting him. I regret not only because I couldn’t recruit C. Ronaldo, but also because he later joined Man Utd. To this day, I’m still hurt by the incident. this,” he said.
Regarding the missed deal with Messi, Wenger once revealed: “We discussed with Lionel Messi when recruiting Fabregas, because Messi is a teammate of the same age as Fabregas.” The plan failed because Messi could not get a work permit in the UK.
Of course, as the famous proverb comes from Wenger’s hometown: “With one if, one can put all of Paris in a bottle.” Perhaps only one thing remains constant, which is the talent that transcends space and time of C.Ronaldo and Messi.
In the early 2000s, when C. Ronaldo and Messi began their careers, it was difficult to imagine the development and achievements these two superstars would later achieve. When he debuted at Man Utd, the young Portuguese talent was known as the heir to David Beckham’s right wing midfielder position in the popular 4-4-2 formation.
