#5 It’s World Cup year...and both could miss out
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While club glory is all well and good, nothing really pulls at the heartstrings quite like international success. While Ronaldo has won the European Championships with Portugal and Messi reached the 2014 World Cup final with Argentina, neither man has truly lit up a World Cup in the way that the likes of Maradona, Zidane or Pele did. It’s the one thing their detractors seem to hang over them.
2018’s World Cup in Russia could well be the final chance for both men to prove themselves on the ultimate stage, given their advanced age now, but the scary part is that we might have a tournament without both of them.
Argentina are currently fifth in the South American qualification standings (of which four sides automatically qualify), one point behind Chile and Uruguay, but their performances have been shaky at best thus far – home losses to Ecuador and Paraguay stick out as especially bad, but an away loss to Bolivia in March wasn’t great either.
The fact that they still need to play Uruguay and Ecuador away means that incredibly, they could miss out.
Portugal meanwhile currently sit second in their qualifying group behind Switzerland; the Swiss beat them 2-0 in Basel and it’s that result that separates the two teams. Should neither team slip up against the other sides – Hungary, Latvia, the Faroe Islands and Andorra – if the Swiss could pick up a point in Portugal then Ronaldo’s men would be condemned to a play-off – a possible showdown with a side like Wales, Italy, or the Netherlands. No guarantees at all there.
Both Argentina and Portugal may still qualify but what if they don’t? In a World Cup year, it’d be hard to argue that the season could be dominated by two players who wouldn’t be able to star in the season’s biggest attraction.
