End of an Era

As the WC winds down 2022 is starting to feel like the end of an Era. Messi-Ronaldo has been decisively set and both are nearing retirement. The WC felt like the Messi's last hurrah and the celebrations like an epilogue of the past 15 years (although perhaps that will be his inevitable BdO). Not just for him, but a whole slate of footballers who have dominated the discourse since 2008 have either retired or are looking like they should retire. Particularly in the Spanish and Belgian golden generations that dominated La Liga and the PL respectively, but also players like Modric, Lewandowski, Suarez, Navas, Neuer, Cavani, Benzema, Bale and so on.

On comes the next era. Who knows what it will bring? Mbappe vs Haaland seems to be the new CR vs Messi. Madrid and Barca don't quite dominate as they last did and the PL seems king again (and have for half a decade tbf). PSG still has to prove it can win when it matters most. There are new players like Newcastle looking to make a splash. Most every national team is looking to rebuild, although some are more advanced along the process than others. There are still a few transitional talents between generations (Kane, KDB) but these seem like they will quickly be overshadowed by the next. Looking forward whatever the next era brings.

the era of Mikel Arteta's Gunners

Even though international football in general sucks, what makes it interesting is you cannot buy your way out of trouble like Real Madrid or EPL teams

I'm glad that the next generation of GOAT tier talents are not from traditional football powerhouses like a Brazil or an Argentina

I do hope Norway improves and eventually qualifies for the next world cup tho

Each time a country produces a GOAT tier footballer, that nation goes on to achieve success(which can be relative in case of smaller countries)

Let's hope Haaland can put Norway on the world football map

maybe with the recent expansion there's a better chance... they have Haaland and Odegaard for now but outside of that, i'm not so sure

For me it feels like football is complete. The supposed GOAT truly is the GOAT now. Whatever happens next i don't really care except Juventus of course. To watch Juve games and follow Serie A is a habit that i don't plan giving up.

My era as big football enthusiast who knows every player and watch as many games as i can has come to an end. The last footballer i admire was Buffon and to some extent Chiellini. The new generation leaves me quite indifferent, especially as it is right now, Mbappé and Haaland are the only world class players incoming. Perhaps it will be a transitional phase before a great generation comes in by 2025 or something.

But i will cherish the memories of Messi vs Ronaldo rivalry for the rest of my life, i always prefered Messi for many reasons although i was never a fanboy, to be on the winning side is somehow satisfying.

Last Sunday I did get a feeling as if we were all living inside a movie or a dream and it was now all over and it was time to wake up. There's a clear and definite before and after, the final was one hell of an event horizon that culminated an entire generation of dreams in a way that re-contextualizes everything.

It's surreal that Messi essentially... collected all of the infinity stones. Pele will always mythically endure with his 3 world cups, in an almost cruel way, but you can't possibly do much more than Messi has done to overthrow that. He's done it.

On my desktop I always have the Walt Disney Concert Hall as my wallpaper but every once in a while I change the perspective from which I'm looking at it. It feels like we're looking at roughly the same thing as always but from a different perspective that changes everything, really.

I'm keeping an eye on the midfielders, as always, they're the pivotal thing to me and my tastes, Kroos might retire soon, Modric should probably as well, time to see what Valverde, Tchouameni, Camavinga, and some other wunderkind midfielder can take us towards now.

El Gunner wrote:maybe with the recent expansion there's a better chance... they have Haaland and Odegaard for now but outside of that, i'm not so sure

Yeah, I'm biased, but I would really love to see that happen. I don't think we have the overall quality in midfield and defense, and even on offense, Joshua King and Alexander Sørloth don't offer any consistent, tangible quality. A lot of the goalscoring burden is put on Haaland and Ødegaard, and they don't seem to be fit at the same time very often.

I had imagined that Sander Berge and Kristoffer Ajer would be established players by now, but their careers have both been derailed by injuries and surgeries, and the former has been rotting away at Sheffield United since they got relegated I'm not very familiar with our younger players these days, but I think Norway NT has too many shortcomings to be able to advance far in any international competition. Unless, there are a lot of gems in the U21s.

Yeah pretty much. Ronaldo vs Messi was tititlar definer of this epoch in the sport and yeah it ends with a winner in Messi. Europe dominated the World Cup during this time and Argentina winning ended that streak at long last. The new epoch will indeed have MBappe vs Haaland unless another contender shows up. I think USA might finally have some protagonism in the sport this time around. The sport is more globalized now so new World Cup contenders will show up. Might even have a new champion or 2. England will likely end up being the Super League and the rest of Europe will try to contend against them in the CL.

In anime terms, this arc is over. However, many arcs had came to end before that I enjoyed lol so this, for me, is just gonna be a new beginning with new stories and rivalries.

But I doubt anything would be like the Messi-Ronaldo debates (which is still literally on going for some reason). Great footballing arc, love it.

Tbh I hope we don't get anything like that era again. The idea that there are two dominant characters to the point, everyone only wants to play for either of the two teams those guys are on can get a little dull. I hope the next era is not just haaland and mbappe. And some other people can lead different teams besides just participating as teammates to the stars.

Mikel Arteta's Gunners

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim.
Assalamu'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh to Muslim.
Good day to Others.

From a quality point of view,
is football getting better
or worse?



Wallahu a'lam.

Doc wrote:But I doubt anything would be like the Messi-Ronaldo debates (which is still literally on going for some reason). Great footballing arc, love it.

CR fanbois:

Yeah, what a TESTING time to be a drop in the sea of Messi fans, with all of these CR fanbois making their lives so hard that they constantly have to defend themselves

S wrote:Even though international football in general sucks, what makes it interesting is you cannot buy your way out of trouble like Real Madrid or EPL teams

I'm glad that the next generation of GOAT tier talents are not from traditional football powerhouses like a Brazil or an Argentina

I do hope Norway improves and eventually qualifies for the next world cup tho

Each time a country produces a GOAT tier footballer, that nation goes on to achieve success(which can be relative in case of smaller countries)

Let's hope Haaland can put Norway on the world football map

Mbappe is a GOAT-tier talent & won World Cup 2018 as arguably France's best player. Given the fact how ridiculously stacked France are, I'm sure Mbappe will compete for World Cup/Euro trophies for his entire career as favorites. No other country comes close to France's insane talent pool.

El Gunner wrote:maybe with the recent expansion there's a better chance... they have Haaland and Odegaard for now but outside of that, i'm not so sure

Ödegaard has been underperforming for Norway NT, sadly...

Norway is one of the worst NTs in Europe & it's highly unlikely they'll have a Golden Generation soon.

Varnagel wrote:

El Gunner wrote:maybe with the recent expansion there's a better chance... they have Haaland and Odegaard for now but outside of that, i'm not so sure

Ödegaard has been underperforming for Norway NT, sadly...

Norway is one of the worst NTs in Europe & it's highly unlikely they'll have a Golden Generation soon.

I think both claims are a bit of a stretch I don't think we're one of the worst NTs in Europe, but injuries have prevented us from fielding an ideal lineup with any consistency, and we're certainly not good enough to go all the way. Ødegaard is one of the players who's been hampered by injuries or poor form as a result of having just returned from an injury. I don't necessarily blame him for that poor form, but it would be nice to see him and Haaland be fit at the same time more often.

Very hard to replicate Messi and Ronaldo success, beside their talent. But both were surrounded with an all time great supporting cast.

They will be surpassed, it is not a matter if but when.

Ronaldo could foreseeably be overtaken by Haaland. Messi I’m not sure about, could be 30 years before we see someone similar to him, let alone better. I wouldn’t be surprised if I never see someone better than Messi in my life, even though I hope I do.

There was 25 years between Pele and Maradona. Then another 25 years between Maradona and Messi.

I assume we'll get another talent of that level by then. He'll probably be an even better player than Messi just because of the way football evolves.

Casciavit wrote:There was 25 years between Pele and Maradona. Then another 25 years between Maradona and Messi.

I assume we'll get another talent of that level by then. He'll probably be an even better player than Messi just because of the way football evolves.

To complete your list, you should mention Di Stefano first, 10 years before Pele. If it wasn’t for WWII and the two cancelled world cups, he would have had international trophies, the only thing missing from his numbers.

Casciavit wrote:There was 25 years between Pele and Maradona. Then another 25 years between Maradona and Messi.

I assume we'll get another talent of that level by then. He'll probably be an even better player than Messi just because of the way football evolves.

Maybe around 10-15 ? It feels like every decade or so provides an incredible talent

Di Stefano 50s
Pele 60s
Cruyff 70s
Maradona 80s
Ronaldo 90s
Messi 00s/10s

With the rise of the internet, new generation and fans coming into the sport, new un-conventional/ non-conformist journalistic styles or as some call it "the new age media", it won't take long for messi to be surpassed by the masses.

They may not necessarilly be right, but what I noticed is people don't like to give props to what's before them. And if what's before them is harder to achieve, they reduce the standards and shift the goal post.

What messi has over Pele maradona etc is high def video footage and access to full recorded games. But even with that, it doesn't take much for some Podcaster in a few years time who didn't see him live, to asses a video online and say something like "he played against awful defenses. He cud never dribble past (insert new team of the moments name here) like that".

With Pele maradona there were no podcasts, daily up to the minute football shows, internet, etc...so it gave their legends time to blossom (as it should). I doubt it will take up to 20 years or even ten years before some young kid starts poking holes in messi's armor to hype the new kid on the block.

We should all choose Mbappe or Haaland now, and hype ourselves up to absolute, rabid insanity, so we can have a new era.

The Messi/Ronaldo debate tends to make people forget about players like Ronaldinho and Kaka (and very likely a bunch of others I'm forgetting) who were able to have similar impacts, albeit without the same longevity. They didn't have polemic comparisons to create debates around, but equally made people wonder whether there would ever be another like them. There will always be another talent who comes along and changes the game