DOHA, Qatar — The 2022 World Cup has felt like a ‘Last Dance’ for two of football’s biggest stars, neither of whom have ever won the sport’s biggest prize. Lionel Messi, 35, told the media back in August that it would be his last while Cristiano Ronaldo, who turns 38 in February, seems determined to keep going.
Yet the two icons have endured very different tournaments: Messi is one game away from ensuring that Qatar 2022 will forever be known as his World Cup as Argentina face France in the final on Sunday. But for Portugal‘s Ronaldo, the man with whom he’s shared the sport’s biggest stage for more than 10 years, it’s one he would rather forget.
Ronaldo left Qatar with a record when he became the first male player to score at five World Cups, but it said everything about the two players’ differing impacts that when Messi set benchmarks during Argentina’s semifinal victory over Croatia, they were treated as little more than a side-note. He equalled Lothar Matthaus’ record (25) for most appearances at a men’s World Cup and passed Gabriel Batistuta as Argentina’s top scorer in the competition when he scored No. 11 against Croatia on Tuesday. Yet the only story on the night was that Messi has given himself the chance to win the trophy. For Ronaldo, his dream ended three days earlier when Portugal were dumped out by underdogs Morocco in the quarterfinals.
However it ends for Messi, the storylines around the two most recognisable players on the planet have been markedly different since they arrived in the Middle East.
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While Messi sat in his first news conference at the Qatar Convention Centre nearly a month ago, talking about feeling “calm” and praising the spirit in the Argentina camp, the mood was very different across Doha at Portugal’s training centre at Al Shahaniya Sports Club.
Ronaldo’s bombshell interview with journalist Piers Morgan — which prompted Manchester United to threaten legal action before a hastily arranged “mutual termination of his contract — had aired a week earlier. When Bernardo Silva held Portugal’s first news conference in Qatar, the questions, understandably, were not about the World Cup. The Manchester City midfielder has a reputation as being relatively mild-mannered, but it wasn’t long before he grew tired of the barrage of questions about his teammate.
“The news that comes from England has nothing to do with the national team, so I won’t say anything,” he said.
