No sooner has the era of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi drawn to an end,
with their unprecedented hold on the Ballon d’Or now finally released,
than a new duopoly appears to have emerged, set to dominate football for years to come.
But is it the same: Can Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe really be the new Messi and Ronaldo?
There are some easy comparisons to make.
First, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe are similar ages, play similar roles and
in comparable positions. In different ways, They also each play for a European superclub and so,
while domestic confrontations between the two have been and will continue to be rare – for
the timebeing at least – they can expect to face each other semi-regularly in the Champions League.
As their careers to this point have demonstrated,
they are both volume scorers too and are both blessed with rare abilities. Mbappe
is a once-in-a-generation combination of skill, speed and goalscoring flair,
while Haaland is a highly unusual athlete who can score any in any conceivable way.
Both will occupy the Ballon d’Or shortlists for much of the next decade and, so far,
that’s a very Messi and Ronaldo trait.
To appreciate the differences, though, it’s worth thinking back to a time before either existed,
and an era when European and World football had an entirely different set of expected norms.
And the Ballon d’Or is a good way of charting those differences.
With Ronaldo’s second-place finish to Kaka, 2007 was the first time either
he or Messi finished in one of the top-three places. Across the seventeen previous awards,
only one player had won more than once. That was the original Ronaldo,
and even his two Ballons d’Or were five years apart and serve to make the point
that – while there were exceptions – becoming the best player in the world was something
which happened after an especially perfect twelve months and an alignment of the stars.
Players in European football were always rising and falling in European football, with
long periods of sustained superiority presumed impossible. In the years since,
Messi and Ronaldo have proved that to be entirely false.
Between the two of them they would dominate the Ballon d’Or for the
next ten years and not until 2018 would a different player collect the award.
The nature of that superiority was different too. Previously, recognising the best player in the
world was more of a subjective process – World Cups, league titles and goals scored mattered,
but voting was also apparently mood based. Luis Figo in 2000, Michael Owen in 2001 and Pavel
Nedved in 2003 were, for example, awards given with medals and measurables in mind,
but also with a more conceptual idea of what made someone the best footballer in the world.
Messi and Ronaldo have changed that forever.
One of the most compelling statistics about them is that, of the list of top ten scoring seasons in
Spanish Primeira Division history, between them they have authored 7. And all of the top six.
Comparing Champions League seasons with those of the past is a flawed comparison,
mainly because of the tournaments reformatting, but there too, either Messi, Ronaldo, or a
combination of both were top-scorer every season for twelve years. Neymar tied the duo with his ten
goals in 2015, but that only serves to accentuate the achievement: despite all his talent and the
strength of the team behind him, a player of Neymar’s calibre was only able to keep pace once.
Erling Haaland Kylian Mbappe certainly have the ability to match those achievements,
but that’s less important. What matters – in this instance at least – is the value
of redefining what was previously thought possible, as opposed to simply matching it.
Roger Bannister was the first person to run a four-minute mile, but few people will be
able to recall who did it second, despite the accomplishment being of equal worth.
So, while Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could match that and reach the same kind of level, it
seems impossible that such an act would carry such significance or produce an equivalent spectacle.
And that’s problem one.
Problem two lies beyond the by-the-numbers of the
Messi-Ronaldo rivalry and within its deeper themes.
The other great advantage they hold over Haaland, Mbappe and everyone who follows,
is that their excellence was achieved within the cauldron of one of football’s
great rivalries. And, again conveniently, at a time when Barcelona and Real Madrid
were at one of the most acrimonious and competitive points in their joint history.
It created layers in the Messi-Ronaldo rivalry that otherwise wouldn’t have existed. For much
of their careers, they were in direct opposition, on the same pitch, at least
twice a year, and those very literal contests manufactured and maintained a rivalry which,
otherwise, would probably have been more of a media construct.
A more abstract observation might also be that during that period they each adopted
the characteristics of the teams they played for – Messi because of his size,
technical qualities and because he was raised in LaMasia. Ronaldo in a more subtle way,
with his playing style, self-image and orientation towards the Champions League
being more in keeping with Real Madrid’s personality as a club.
The effect was a referendum of sorts: the reason Messi vs Ronaldo is such a divisive
topic and so many supporters can’t just enjoy both for what they are, is because
they apparently represent such different aspects of football, both on the pitch and away from it.
By convenient quirk, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe will compete for most of their careers
side-by-side. They may even break records and collect the equivalent tonnage of silverware,
all the while producing the kind of highlights that remain in the mind’s
eye in perpetuity. Nevertheless, to hope for and expect a repeat of
the Messi-Ronaldo rivalry is to ignore just how rare its context actually was.