Sometimes it feels like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi just won’t go away.
Their reign at the top of world football seemed unending. In a way, so too have their careers been. Drawn out, sticky, always coming back at you. Look around and there’s Ronaldo again, making waves, pulling the audience, just when you thought he was gone.
Messi shone among the very brightest stars at this summer’s World Cup, his eight goals and four assists surpassing all but Kylian Mbappe.
First Ronaldo left Madrid, and then he was at Juventus, then back at Manchester United, and when you thought it was over he popped up again in Saudi Arabia, and then the World Cup at 41.
Messi has moved from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain to Inter Miami, where he is still leaving audiences enthralled, still leading Argentina, still competing at the World Cup final.
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The remarkable gifts of these two greatest football players of all time have always been about more than just their ability on the pitch. It has also been about their longevity.
That is why it was interesting to hear them both talk about their retirements this month, only a few days apart from each other. Dare we say this is finally it, the end of endings?
Ronaldo said he would “probably” retire from football when his current contract at Al Nassr ends, saying he wants to leave the game with a “spectacular legacy” and spend more time on other interests.
The comments came only weeks after he had married Georgina Rodriguez, his long-time girlfriend. Perhaps that momentous, if private, occasion was Ronaldo preparing for the end.
He is contracted to Al-Nassr until June 2027, a mammoth contract that is unlikely to be renewed. If he leaves the club, it is difficult to see him going anywhere else.
A romantic return to Sporting CP is surely out of the question at the age of 41, with Ronaldo now turning towards married life, and his profile so big that it would probably cause more harm than good to Sporting.
“This is probably my last year of football, and I want to leave a spectacular legacy,” Ronaldo said.
“I have my future all mapped out. I have so many things to keep me busy that to tell you just one thing is hard. Because football could leave a big hole, you have to fill your time in various ways, not just one.
“And also have more fun, travel more, watch and play padel, which I really like, and continue to enjoy what I’ve earned – what we’ve earned. Because after all it’s been 25 years with a lot of sacrifice.”
It sounded very much like something he had carefully thought through, and that arguably the most famous career of all time is indeed approaching its end.
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But it came less than a week after Messi also suggested that he may not continue playing for much longer, following the loss of his father Jorge Messi.
It would indeed make for a defining symmetry if the pair were to retire at the same time. Perhaps no two careers have ever been so entwined, so talked about, so mutually impactful on each other. Ronaldo and Messi shaped each other into what they have now become.
From that night when they first met in a Champions League semi-final in 2008, they have pushed each other relentlessly, continuously refined both their skills. It would be fitting if they bowed out together, to one last, great, global applause.
Messi’s contract with Inter Miami runs until 2028, one year later than Ronaldo’s, so unless he ends his time at the club early, he will probably at the very least, retire one year later than Ronaldo, so perhaps the poetic ending will not happen.
Then again, would you even bet at all that either of them will definitely retire when their current contract ends?
