It is a victory of the narrative machinery, one which seems to consume even those who remain wary of it. No matter how much the discerning seek to separate the two, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s paths run into each other. It should not be so — one should find mention without the other.

Yet, the exit of Argentina and Portugal from the World Cup in Russia on the same day has enmeshed them again. A few hours after Messi stood despairingly in the centre of the Kazan Arena, Ronaldo was left gesticulating to the referee as Portugal slithered towards exiting the 2018 tournament in Sochi. If both players had finished on the winning side, the narrative around them would have spun into an overdrive. The frenzy around their anticipated meeting in the quarters would have blown out of proportion.

It is just as well that it did not happen.

Now that both Messi and Ronaldo are out, once again, there’s a deluge of opinions suggesting that the hype around them has outgrown their stature. For all their achievements, the argument goes, neither has ever scored in a knockout match of the World Cup. Nor are they likely to win football’s most hallowed showpiece anymore, considering that Messi will be 35 and Ronaldo 37 when Qatar hosts the next tournament in 2022.

And yet, none of these failures diminish their achievements. Messi and Ronaldo’s unprecedented performance for their clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid, has left little to debate; but the desire to contest their status remains. In a way, social media has facilitated these debates. Neither Messi nor Ronaldo is (thankfully!) affected by it, but the question refuses to go away.

Maradona and Pele are inevitable addendums to the Messi-Ronaldo debate. Anything Messi or Ronaldo does is put up on the same table, to be sampled in a smorgasbord of football’s finest glories. And yet, this tasting menu gets its fundamentals wrong. It grossly overlooks the differing realities which the two players inhabit. As much as we try to put them together, they just do not mix.

Messi, with some fortune, would have worn the winner’s medals at the 2014 World Cup and the Copa America tournaments the following years (2015 and 2016). Near-misses in those finals left a heavy shadow on the Argentinian team. Those also burden the current side, one that is nowhere close to challenging for such trophies.

Arriving in Russia with an ageing defence and limited talent, not to mention coach Jorge Sampaoli’s confusing tactics, Messi stood out not just because he is better than most of the players at the World Cup, but also the morass which beset his teammates. If football was not a team sport, he may have won. But even the greatest players are bound by their circumstances. Remember George Best?

Ronaldo, of course, did not possess a greater chance than Messi of winning the World Cup. Despite Portugal’s stunning success at the Euros in 2016, it remains a team with few qualities. Its punching above the weight may have moved some to think that a surprise was in offing, but as the side’s performances in Russia showed, it could not exert pressure on any opposition. Ronaldo’s four goals in the group stage fed the belief that one man could do it all, but he is now a man bereft of the pace of his younger days, though more decisive in front of the goal.

Once the shiny lights of the World Cup fade, both Messi and Ronaldo will return to their clubs and the drudgery of battering the opposition alongside their supremely talented colleagues. This does not cheapen what they achieve throughout the year; rather, it goes to show that even the best of players cannot thrive in the company of their much less capable teammates.

History can trick us into believing that Maradona won the 1986 World Cup on his own or that Pele wrested the Jules Rimet trophy in 1958 with a single swoop of his gangly arms. But we must also recall the stories of Didi, Garrincha, Jorge Burruchaga and Oscar Ruggeri who, even when they are not accorded the same status, provided Brazil and Argentina the wherewithal to script their biggest glories.

As we come to terms with Messi and Ronaldo not winning the most hallowed of Cups, their latest slip offers us a sobering realisation of the power of the collective. The megaliths may seem taller than the monument at times, but they rest firmly on its shoulders.

Both Messi and Ronaldo will soon return to familiar edifices and refurbish their glories, safe in the knowledge that time will mend their latest heartbreak.

Priyansh is an independent writer based in New Delhi and currently in Russia for the World Cup

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW