Where will Ronaldo and Messi be in 5 years?

By on October 13, 2014

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are arguably the best two players the world has ever seen. Certainly, as their careers begin to wane, it is up for debate whether they matched those careers of namely Diego Maradona and Pele. Regardless, however, they are undoubtedly the best two players of a generation – the generation currently at the top of their game. Ronaldo is 29, nearing what is the end of most player’s primes, while Messi is just reaching what is normally the best years for others at 27. Both, now, have been at the top of world football for nearly a decade, and over the past six years have taken eleven of the twelve possible top two spots in the FIFA Ballon D’Or, formerly the FIFA World Player of the Year award. Only in 2009 did Andres Iniesta push Ronaldo out of the top two.

But now, their dominance at the top of world football is waning. It may not be gone just yet, with early polls(1) already suggesting they will split the top two in the 2015 Ballon D’Or, and Ronaldo currently on track for his highest scoring season ever with an astonishing thirteen goals from his first six league matches this season, but should be gone within the next few years. So the question “Where will they go in five years time” begs to be asked. We have to remember that this question was asked of every great, from Maradona to Pele to David Beckham. And if we know how they all ended their careers, then just maybe it would be possible to estimate how Ronaldo and Messi will. Lets give it a shot, at very least.

First, lets look at Pele, who was nearing the end of his career in the mid-seventies. He may be the oddest case, having never made it across the pond and stayed at Brazilian giants Santos for the majority of his career. In fact, after his nineteenth season with the only team he had ever played for, he called it quits right then and there and went into semi-retirement, though still occasionally appearing for the club over a period of over a year. Stopping right at that moment, Pele’s career resembles Messi’s quite a lot. Except for the fact that the Argentine has did move to Europe, he has spent his entire senior career the the majority of his youth at Barcelona, joining the Catalans at the age of just 11. If Barca give him the treatment as they did most recently Xavi and Iniesta, whom are now both in their mid forties and still at the club, it is likely that Messi could end his career at Barca when he is 35. Alan Shearer is another great to have taken this route, retiring with Newcastle United, the club who had had spent the majority of his career, with, in 2006.

But back to Pele. The lure of football (and possibly the money that came with it), Pele couldn’t help himself from staying away. Instead of rejoining Santos, though, he was excited by the prospect of American soccer and famously joined the New York Cosmos of the original North American Soccer league, and played there for nearly three years. Pele isn’t the only great to have been attracted by the thought of playing abroad, particularly in the USA. At the same time Eusebio had left Benfica and played for a hatful of different American clubs before retirement five years later, while Cruyff left Barcelona to try his hand in America for the Los Angeles Aztecs and the Washington Diplomats. The NASL also attracted the likes of George Best and Franz Beckenbauer. The US has attracted many stars in the waning seasons of their careers, and more recently David Beckham.

Beckham, in fact, may be the most direct resemblance to Ronaldo in terms of career, having also been brought into the limelight of world football at Manchester United before joining the Real Madrid “Galacticos”, and also dealt with salaries like those of Ronaldo. Once he was drown out of the spotlight by the likes of Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo (the Brazilian one) at Madrid the Englishman made his way to the LA Galaxy in the MLS in his early thirties.

Others, however, like Zidane, have called it quits at the very top. Zidane’s final match before retirement was the 2006 World Cup final. Ronaldo could mirror this, with recent reports that his release clause with Madrid is a largely ceremonial €1 billion, suggesting Madrid aren’t interested in selling for at least another few years, although they are afraid they may lose him. Yet the Portuguese superstar may be personally interested in leaving with pre-season comments hinting that he is unhappy in Madrid and would like to see himself return to Manchester United before he retires.

This perhaps would lead in the same way Ronaldinho and his name-wise Ronaldo. Both went to Milan, AC Milan and Internazionale respectively after leaving both of their prime periods in Spain. Ronaldinho then went on to try a little bit of everything, returning to his homeland Brazil for a few years and now at Mexican club Queretaro, though that is in large part due to the fact he is still only 34 and his fall from grace was so fast (because of his alleged “party” lifestyle). The Brazilian Ronaldo also moved back to Brazil, Corinthians, specifically, but soon retired again in consequence of his lifestyle. Cristiano will certainly last longer than either of them, so if he leaves Madrid in a few years could go back to Manchester, and then either end his career there or take a shot at returning to Portugal or going abroad. But if he does leave Madrid in the next few years it would be hard to see him going directly to the MLS Portugal without taking another smaller step down first, though if he leaves it until later on in his career he could follow the likes of Theirry Henry in doing so and joining the MLS.

Messi on the other hand is at an age where he can practically do anything he wants still. He may very well end his career at Barca as aforementioned, but could also move elsewhere if he is ever cycled out of the club’s starting level like Xavi has been, and soon Iniesta as well. Much like Maradona, though the two are undoubtedly polar opposites in terms of personality, Messi may move back to his homeland once his time at Barca is done, at, say, 33 or 34. His former Argentina team-mate Gabriel Heinze has recently said(2) he believes that Messi will end his career at his very first youth team, Newells Old Boys, in Argentina. Many South American footballers, like Maradona, Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho, do move back to South America once they have peaked. But remember that Messi is still 27, and due to his strong Barcelona roots could end his career like Ryan Giggs did at Manchester United, playing his entire career for one club.

Of course, it will be terrible to see the two retire. But it has to happen – and has happened to every great before them at one point or another. It may not have to happen – their fall from the top – for another three or four years, and at least the only thing that is certain is that the two have enough time left to choose whichever path they want to take, even if it hasn’t been travelled before.

Footnotes:
(1) ESPNFC (2) Bleacher Report

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.