For nine years it was the greatest show on earth – the two best players of their generation in a season-long slog of ‘anything you can do I can do better’.
We will miss their battle to be the best, and Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will miss each other in the way all great sporting rivals end up longing for the once sworn enemy.
At first it was taken for granted they didn’t like each other. There were rumours that Messi was referred to as ‘the dwarf’ in Ronaldo’s inner circle. And Messi was no more fond of the louder, brasher imposter.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s son greets Lionel Messi during the 2017 Best FIFA player awards in London
Ronaldo and Messi have constantly battled it out for honours but there’s a mutual respect
Despite playing for rival teams the duo are said to have mellowed their rivalry over the years
Fatherhood melted the cold war between them. The video of Ronaldo’s son Cristiano Jnr shyly approaching Messi at the 2015 Ballon d’Or gala helped change their relationship for ever.
The image of Messi affectionately greeting Cristiano Jnr by patting him on the head and asking him how he is doing, with Ronaldo then calling from across the room, “He watched a video on the Internet about us and he talks about you”, before telling his son, “Don’t be embarrassed now!” was the football equivalent of a post-12 rounds embrace, the pre-match trash-talking long forgotten.
As the opinion each one had of the other changed so did the balance of power. Messi invariably had the upper hand in the early days but just when it seemed Ronaldo was a beaten man he won three straight Champions Leagues and he leaves having pulled level in the Ballon d’Or stakes too.
Messi was already established in La Liga when Ronaldo was unveiled in front of 80,000 supporters at the Santiago Bernabeu. The main stage presentation on the pitch complete with catwalk seemed completely over the top back in 2009 and at first Ronaldo failed to live up to the hype.
It would be an exaggeration to say he spent the first Clasico in Gerard Pique’s pocket but it was certainly true that his former Manchester United team-mate had the measure of him while Messi ran riot against the Real Madrid defence.
In Ronaldo’s first Clasico it was Zlatan Ibrahimovic who stole the show with a rare moment of Nou Camp magic. The return fixture in 2010 ended with Barcelona winning 2-0 and Messi scoring his 40th goal of the season. Barca won the league and Ronaldo won nothing.
Ronaldo was still being labelled a flat-track bully at the time while Messi could bamboozle all-comers. The two were mentioned in the same breath but only as their respective team’s best players.
That began to change at the end of their second season in direct competition when for the first of many times Ronaldo did something that made sure Messi would end up on the losing side.
The tit-tat for genius had began in earnest in the league with one trying to outdo the other as they invariably played at different times across the weekend. But in April 2011 they met in the Spanish Cup Final and a majestic header from Ronaldo settled the game in Real Madrid’s favour.
And if Ronaldo had left Messi without a cup winner’s medal in 2011, in 2012 he would leave him without a league winners medal.
Messi and Ronaldo shake hands in December during a La Liga affair at the Santiago Bernabeu
Messi winks at rival Ronaldo after the Argentine superstar won the 2015 FIFA Ballon d’Or
He scored 46 goals as Real Madrid broke Messi and Barcelona’s stranglehold on the competition. His brilliant match winner at the Nou Camp from Mesut Ozil’s brilliant pass had also been decisive.
What Ronaldo could still not manage to do was match Messi in the Champions League. In the 2010-11 season the two had faced each other in semi-final. Having won that Copa del Rey final just days before, Ronaldo was beginning to feel that he had the measure of his great rival. He was full of confidence going into the first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Unfortunately for him, his coach Jose Mourinho believed Real Madrid were still no measure for Barcelona and that the best way to get past over two legs was to stop them from scoring in the first game — even if that meant the first 90 minutes ending 0-0 — so as to have the away goals advantage in the second game.
Ronaldo was appalled by the negativity. He disobeyed orders to sit back and let Barcelona have the ball. He wanted to hunt down Pique and company and hassle them out of possession but his team-mates followed Mourinho’s orders and not the instincts of the team’s talisman striker.
It seemed as if Mourinho’s plan would work as the game headed towards its final quarter still at 0-0 but Pepe was sent off for kicking Dani Alves and with 10 men Messi destroyed Madrid’s defence scoring twice to give Barcelona an unassailable advantage going into the second leg.
Barca would beat Manchester United in the Champions League final with Ronaldo watching at home on television.
The following season despite the domestic superiority again the Champions League was a step too far and Ronaldo missed a penalty in the semi-final defeat against Bayern Munich.
In that campaign, Barcelona failed in the semi-finals too but Messi had become the first player to score five goals in a Champions League game in an match from an earlier round against Bayer Leverkusen.
And in the January of 2013 the Argentinian picked up his fourth Ballon d’Or. The only thing not predictable about the annual ceremony was his choice of attire. Ronaldo was being left behind in the individual stakes.
But far from beaten he was only just getting started. In that 2012-13 season he scored twice in the Copa del Rey semi-final against Messi’s Barcelona. Not only did the goals take his team to the cup final it also meant he had scored in six consecutive visits to the Nou Camp. Messi’s field of dreams was no longer somewhere Ronaldo went just to suffer.
Messi points to the sky as he celebrates scoring his team’s third goal against Ronaldo’s Real
Messi is all smiles as he addresses the media alongside Ronaldo at the 2013 Ballon d’Or awards
Change was coming too. Mourinho left at the end of that season and when Carlo Ancelotti turned up Ronaldo finally had a mentor who would let the story be solely about him. He responded by scoring the goals that took Real Madrid to the European Cup final.
In the league Messi had retained the upper hand and in the second Clasico of that season Barcelona beat Real Madrid 4-3 coming back from 3-2 down. Messi scored a hat-trick to win the match.
But what mattered to Ronaldo now was the Champions League and at the end of that season threre he was in Lisbon tearing his shirt off after scoring the fourth goal in Madrid’s extra-time win over Atletico Madrid to win the club the 10th European Cup they had wanted for so long.
Earlier that year Ronaldo had ended Messi’s domination of the Ballon d’Or and now a cycle of Champions League Ballon d’Or doubles was to follow.
In the 2014-15 season Ronaldo scored his 300th goal for Madrid; Messi his 400th for Barcelona. Courtesy of having been at the club longer there were still areas where he led Ronaldo and the gap could not be closed. But Ronaldo was honing in on Messi’s Golden Balls tally, lifting the 2015 award.
Messi won the Balon d’Or back in 2016 but Ronaldo bounced back with the next two and he leaves Spain on a par with Messi in terms of the biggest individual prize.
He departs having changed the narrative too.
Juventus announced the news that rocked world football late on Tuesday afternoon
How Ronaldo could look when he turns out for Italian champions Juventus next season
When he led Portugal to the European Championship in 2016 he did something Messi had not been able to do with Argentina. For years the question asked about Ronaldo was: Is he the best player in the world? While the question asked about Messi was: Is he the best player of all-time? Now both would fight for a place on the all-time podium alongside Pele, Alfredo Di Stefano and Diego Maradona.
Messi still comes out on top when their goals, assists and trophies over this nine-year period are totted-up. But he always had the advantage of being at a club he had played for since he was 13 – it was always his kingdom.
Ronaldo came from another club, another league. He had to conquer Madrid before he could conquer Barcelona and Messi.
These two could still meet again next season in the Champions Leauge. Ronaldo, Douglas Costa, Paulo Dybala against Messi, Luis Suarez, Philippe Coutinho. It still whets the appetite.
But nothing will ever be quite like their La Ligas years. Never mind the question: who is the best? Their rivalry to reign in Spain was the greatest we have ever seen.