sport news Ronaldo vs Messi: It's sad that this is how a great rivalry ends in Saudi Arabia trends now
With a king’s ransom in his pocket and a pawn’s responsibilities in his feet, the old boy finally got to work on Thursday night.
He was here in this most unusual of places and so was the other guy, two men locked in a dance that has gone on for 14 years. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo – the order always mattered and what a treat that tango has been.
They have contested El Clasico, fought it out in the Champions League, squared off in the colours of their country, and together they have reached such magnificent heights.
It is sad that this is how a great rivalry ends between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo
This might be the last time we see these two face off after PSG's 5-4 win over Saudi All Stars
There is a curiosity in how it came to this for one of the greatest footballers the world has ever seen - with Ronaldo now set to become a billboard for Saudi Arabia
Could one have done it without the other? Possibly. Would it have been so special? No chance. Ali needed Frazier and Foreman. Nicklaus needed Palmer. Navratilova needed Evert. The Red Sox need the Yankees. Ronaldo needed Messi, Messi needed Ronaldo.
But maybe it is over now. Maybe this 37th jig of ageing rivals was the last we’ll see of them on the same pitch.
And there is a sadness in that, just as there is a curiosity in how it has come to this for one of the greatest footballers the world has seen. A curiosity of modern sport and a curiosity of international politics and a curiosity of the ego that led Ronaldo away from one life as a serious athlete and into another as a billboard or washcloth, depending on how you view these discussions.
So perhaps this is how the rivalry ends, on a pitch in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where a team of greats, led by Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, contested an exhibition against the hybrid ‘All Stars’ of Al-Hilal and Al Nassr, the latter of whom will serve as Ronaldo’s new colleagues.
The pair reached magnificent heights together and none could have done it without the other
After contesting El Clasico, fighting it out in the Champions League and on the national stage, this then felt somewhat anti-climactic
When it was done, Messi’s bunch had won 5-4. A good game, actually. Messi scored the first, Ronaldo responded with two of his own, and maybe he quite enjoyed that, just as the locals enjoyed seeing it. Truly, they love football in this country.
But it was impossible to shake the thought that while Messi passes through on his tour as a World Cup winner, Ronaldo will stay right here. Fabulously wealthy to the beat of £173million a year, but a man for whom the pursuit of excellence is seemingly no longer what it was.
For now, his purpose seems to be facing other directions. He says it is about conquering Asia just as he conquered Europe, but he is also more than smart enough to know the game for which he is being deployed off the pitch.
The game of inspiring the youth of a football-mad nation, to go by the spoken accounts of those who
