The 16th of February 2021, saw the return of Europe’s biggest and arguably the biggest and most revered competition in the world of sports; the UEFA champions league, on a night when two giants of the modern game, Barcelona and Paris Saint Germain, locked horns to fight for supremacy and a chance to move to the last 8 of the competition, in the absence of his talismanic teammate, Neymar jr, and in the presence of one of the greatest footballers of all time Lionel Messi, up stepped Kylian Mbappe who stole the headlines with a sublime well taken hat trick.
Like everything synonymous with every big events and occasions, it churns out big questions which require deep thoughts and answers. One of such deep thoughts was what inspired the pertinent question; are we witnessing the passing out of the old guard; Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who have dominated the world of football for the past decade and beyond, and the emergence of a new order Kylian Mbappe and Dortmund’s top striker, Erling Haaland?
In discussing this topic, one might want to take a look at other sports which are experiencing the same form of revolution and emergence of young superstars ready to take the mantle of supremacy from the old order in their respective fields. Like in the WTP, Naomi Osaka has proven to be a strong face of women tennis as she looks to have taken the reign of supremacy from the old guard, Serena Williams whom she defeated at the semi finals of the Australian open on her way to winning her third major title. Although in the men’s section, the likes of Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev are still finding it hard to usurp the triadic old order of ATP, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic.
The world of American sports has also witnessed a surge and a revolution of some sort, with the emergence of Cam Newton and Patrick Mahomes as new enterprising superstar quarter backs in the NFL, although the latter lost out to the old order, Tom Brady, in the recent super bowl LV, 2021. The NBA is also witnessing a sort of revolution with the emergence of new and young superstars like Luka Doncic, Trae Young, Zion Williamson, Lamelo Ball just to name a few, who have proven that they can take the mantle of supremacy from the old guard, LeBron, Durant,Curry, when they leave the scene.
In the world of football, the same can be said of the revolution as the emergence of Mbappe, Haaland and the likes has had people throwing out summation of an emergence of a new order in world football and the declining of the old order. These questions could be argued to be logical with the statistical evidence being churned out by these new superstars. At 22years and 58days, Mbappe became the third youngest player to score a hat trick in the UCL knockout stages, he is also the third youngest player to score a hat trick at the Camp Nou. Borrussia Dortmund have scored nine goals in the first half of this UCL season, tied for most with Borrussia Monchengladbach.
Haaland scored five of those first half goals – the most by any player this season. Haaland has scored 10 UCL goals in just seven games for Dortmund, the fastest a player has ever reached 10 goals for a team in the UCL, breaking Roy Makaay’s record with Bayern Munich ( 10 games, between 2003-04 ). Haaland has scored a total 18 UCL goals, one shy of Mbappe, for most goals by a player before his 21st birthday. Mbappe on his own part is the third highest goalscorer in PSG’s history overtaking Portuguese legend Paupers (109), only Cavani (200 goals) and Ibrahimovic (156 goals) have more. Messi and Ronaldo have scored 15 UCL goals since the start of 2019/20 season which pales in comparison with the 28 Mbappe and Haaland have netted in the same timeframe.
Although the duopoly of Messi and Ronaldo’s reign may be coming to an end, it must be noted that the two legends are still playing pivotal roles and remain game changers in the game. Both players still lead the goal scoring standing in their respective leagues with 19 goals apiece (at the time of filing this report). With penalty against PSG, Messi has scored UCL goals in 17 different seasons (2005-21) equalling Raul Gonzalez (1995-2011) for most in the UCL history. He has now scored 20 goals in all competitions for a 13th consecutive season. The goal also means Messi has extended his record of UCL round of 16 goals to 28 – the most in the tournament history, with Ronaldo closely behind him with 25 goals of his own.
Haaland spoke about how Mbappe’s goals against Barcelona spurred him to blitz Sevilla the following day. “I saw Mbappe scored a hat-trick, I got free motivation so thanks to him,” he said after his double in Spain. But it is perhaps unfair to put such a big label on two players so young by comparing them to two of the greatest players in the game.
Ronaldo and Messi have won 11 of the last 12 Ballons d’Or and have broken dozens of records along the way. Ronaldo struck twice for Juventus vs Crotone earlier this week. The Portugal superstar is the top goal scorer in history with 763 to his name, although this is disputed. He is also Real Madrid’s record scorer and has won an incredible five Champions League trophies. Messi is not too far behind with 654 goals and is Barcelona’s all-time top scorer as well as breaking numerous LaLiga records. Haaland and Mbappe are at the start of their careers but the future looks in safe hands once Messi and Ronaldo retire.
[Sailor]
