sport news Lionel Messi, Jimmy Anderson and Tom Brady have beaten Father Time and got ... trends now

The 2022 World Cup marked the end of an era. And not because Lionel Messi finally plugged the only gap on his otherwise stellar CV, but because football's defining rivalry for the past two decades effectively ended on the biggest stage of all. 

While Messi followed in the footsteps of Diego Maradona and inspired Argentina to their World Cup decades, Portugal thrived not because of Cristiano Ronaldo but without him. 

While the Argentine consecrated himself as arguably the greatest footballer in history in Qatar, the Portuguese was dropped by the national side.

It marked the latest milestone in Ronaldo's sudden and staggering decline, which saw him benched by Erik ten Hag at Manchester United before he subsequently left the club in acrimonious circumstances in November. 

Notoriously fastidious about his diet and his strict fitness regime, the fact the 37-year-old remains in seemingly peak physical condition makes his fall from grace even more remarkable.  

'I take great care of my body and my mind,' he told ESPN in January.

'Something I've learned recently is that after 33, I believe the body can deliver if you need it, but the real battle is mental.'

That battle is one Ronaldo appears no longer capable of winning, the latest in a list of sporting greats who have had to come to terms with his own sporting mortality. 

From Jimmy Anderson to Tom Brady - and in fact Ronaldo himself up until last season - a selected few have managed to not only stop their respective ageing curves, but have almost inverted them. 

Here, Sportsmail takes a look at the athletes who have defeated Father Time.

Jimmy Anderson  

Anderson announced his arrival on the Test cricket scene in May 2003, taking a five-fer on debut at Lord's against Zimbabwe four months before Ronaldo was introduced to English football as he came on a substitute against Bolton.  

His first international wicket had come in December 2002 during an ODI against Australia at the MCG.

Or, to put it another way, it came almost 12 months before Love Actually was released and more than four years before the smoking ban in pubs across Britain would come into effect. 

In his first decade as Test cricketer, Anderson played 81 matches and took 305 wickets at an average of 30.1 and a cost of 3.08 runs per over. 

In his second decade in an England Test shirt, he has played 106 matches and taken 407 wickets at 23.33 and an economy rate of 2.54. 

To put the figures into context, Anderson has taken more Test wickets since turning 30 than any Australian bowler - bar Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Nathan Lyon - in history.

If the first decade of his career were to be erased, Anderson would still be second in England's all-time list of wicket-takers behind his partner in crime Stuart Broad.

And as he told Sportsmail earlier this month, the Lancastrian is not planning to stop anytime soon. 

Tom Brady

By the time he briefly retired in February, Brady was the oldest player in the NFL by four years and the oldest person to ever be a starting quarterback. 

He may have turned 45 in August, but he has already hinted he could extend his career into a 24th season. To put his longevity into context, according to the NFL Players’ Association, the average NFL career lasts a little more than three years.

And why not? After all, last season Brady set a career-high in passing yards with 5,316 and threw 43 touchdown passes - the second-most in his career - at 44 years of age and led the NFL in both statistical categories.

A cast-iron guarantee to be inducted in the NFL Hall of Fame once he eventually re-retires, Brady's career could be split in three, with each third deserving of its spot in the hall of fame in Canton, Ohio.

He won three Super Bowls in his 20s, while throwing for 21,564 yards at an average of 224.6 yards per game and 147 touchdowns across 96 games. In his 30s, he passed for 40,018 yards at an average of 283.8 yards per game and

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