1 AWARD, 2 TITANS, 10 YEARS OF DOMINANCE
Monday night remains a memorable one in football history as Ronaldo wins the FIFA Best male player award to equal Messi 5 times run of winning the award. The pair have effectively been the only two players in the conversation for every major individual award since Kaka beat them to the Ballon d’Or (now known as FIFA Best Player Award) back in 2007 making it a decade since any other player won the award aside both of them.
Both players have remained major rivals in football scene for over a decade now, playing for the two biggest clubs in Spanish league; Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively. For the past 10 years both players have had the iconic FIFA best player award revolving around them. Ronaldo who was first to get the award in 2008 went on a drought period of 4 years in which Messi thrived well enough to steal the award from him 4 times in a row. These period were not the best in Ronaldo’s life as he had just secured a move to the Spanish football giant Real Madrid FC following his great performance with Manchester united in their 2008/2009 season campaign. He quickly picked his form and got back to his winning ways stealing the award from Messi in 2013 & 2014 respectively thereafter Messi won it the following year. Ronaldo was back to winning the award in 2016 and on Monday night he won the award for the 5th time.
Their 10 years dominance has put other spectacular players in their shadows. If they keep up with their current performance, this trend is bound to continue for a few more years. Backing the possibility of this situation is Ronaldo’s recent statement insisting that his rivalry with Lionel Messi is far from over.
The question boils down to how long this duo would last for before decline sets in for them and other equally spectacular players like Neymar, Hazard and Mbape gets into limelight.