What happens to the world of football after Messi and Ronaldo retire?

#5 Football will finally move on – with the magical sprinkling of nostalgia

Fans will cherish the numerous memories that the duo gave the footballing world for years to come

There will be thousands of articles written; millions of tweets doing the rounds; myriad eulogies uttered – but finally, at the end of it all, football will move on. Just as football moved on from Maradona and Pele, from Zidane and Ronaldinho, from Maldini and Nesta, again the show must simply go on – and it will.

That is when the magic of nostalgia will start to take hold – as good as Zidane and Ronaldinho were, it is debatable whether they were as good as our biased and nostalgic memories tell us.

In a similar way, we will tell our younger generations stories of Messi and Ronaldo; stories that captivate them and motivate them, stories that won't be out of a place in a fantasy fiction thriller; stories that will help us keep perspective of how insanely good they were.

Perhaps at least then, the cloud of rivalry surrounding them will be lifted; and their respective fans would appreciate the other more in tune with their superhuman achievements.