Messi, Ronaldo and the Potential Last Dance for Transcendent Stars at the World Cup

With Argentina and Portugal both qualifying for the World Cup, the two legends will get another crack at the sport’s biggest prize—perhaps, and most likely, for the last time.

One of the shared experiences that binds fans from across all sports is the sobering realization they must face when it comes to their age and that of their favorite players. 

Often occurring at the same time, new stars of the game may look like mere children while the same demigods who drew you to the sport in the first place fade. Essentially, the experience of bearing witness to superstar athletes becomes a less-creepy version of Matthew McConaughey’s famous line from Dazed and Confused: “I get older, they stay the same age.” 

But as the World Cup approaches, two stars who appear ageless for their capacity to thrill and bewilder us have begun to confront their future. 

While Cristiano Ronaldo may appear to be pulling the Tom Brady-esque stunt of defying the aging process, international soccer’s Super Bowl is not played each year but every four (although FIFA has been flirting with cutting that in half). And with Ronaldo having just turned 37, there is still one very obvious piece of hardware missing from his trophy cabinet.

Lionel Messi, meanwhile, will turn 35 this summer. In 2014, the Argentina star was a Germany extra-time goal away from potentially basking in World Cup glory. But last summer, Messi won his first trophy with the Albiceleste senior team at the Copa América, and everyone knows what the late Diego Maradona accomplished on the World Cup stage that Messi still has not. 

And now, we must begin to come to terms that these legends may soon be sailing off into the World Cup sunset—and that boat may very well disembark from the artificial beaches of Qatar.

Watch the end of CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying online with fuboTV: Start with a 7-day free trial!

On Saturday, after Argentina’s 30th consecutive game without a loss, Messi may have made headlines for his comments about his future, but he was simply stating the obvious.

“I don’t know what I will do after the World Cup,” Messi said. “I am thinking about what is coming. After Qatar I will have to reassess many things.”

Messi has already retired once from the national team after losing the 2016 Copa América Centenario on penalties, but it was short-lived. That announcement was difficult to believe given the emotion and heartbreak of losing another final. But Saturday’s comments had a different ring to it, mostly because we can now begin to picture a stadium without him on the field. After all, we have already had to confront seeing him without the Barcelona stripes that seemed tattooed to his figure.

When addressing his future Monday, Ronaldo gave a more blunt version of the same response, as if he could defy age by out-hustling it with his hallmark work ethic: “If I feel like playing, I will keep playing. If I don’t, I won’t.” 

If there’s anyone who could substantially contribute to a World Cup at 41 years old (Ronaldo’s age at the 2026 World Cup), Ronaldo is as likely a figure given his famous work ethic and fitness level. He only needs to look at Zlatan Ibrahimović as an example. The AC Milan forward nearly helped Sweden book its ticket to Qatar at the age of 40 before the country’s loss to Poland in Tuesday’s playoff final.

But it was also Ibrahimović who gave the most nuanced answer of the stars when asked about his future, and one can imagine it applies to both Messi and Ronaldo. 

“I don’t want to regret stopping football and then saying that I could continue to play football because then I’d regret it for the rest of my life, seeing that I could have continued,” Ibrahimović told UEFA.com. “I want to play as long as I can. The reality is I’ll play until I see that someone is better than me, so I’m still playing.”

But because of their age and the toll four more years may take, it’s difficult to imagine both Messi and Ronaldo being at the 2026 World Cup, or at the very least being the star upon which their entire national team setups orbit. That thought alone sets the upcoming World Cup from the others, not because it’ll be yet another chapter in their intertwined stories—aside from their club-level individual rivalry, their teams both went out on the same day at the 2018 World Cup—but because it could realistically be the last time we see the two icons vie on the same stage for a grand prize that neither has won. The fact that the chance exists that one could take that dream away from the other in a potential knockout game makes the 2022 World Cup that much more delectable.    

Imago Images (2)

But rather than labeling the 2022 World Cup as a last dance, maybe it would be better to consider this a jubilee or sorts, in the same way that nations commemorate the reign of monarchs. For both, it will be their fifth World Cup appearance in careers filled with memories and poignant moments. However, the element that is perhaps most exhilarating about what is to come is something that we have not seen from the duo yet, but was on full display during their first World Cup in 2006. 

Sixteen years ago in Germany, as the two phenoms debuted on the sport’s biggest stage, a paragon of the heights they would achieve (and arguably surpass) was departing. Although Italy won in a thriller, Zinedine Zidane left the lasting image of the tournament when he strode past the trophy following his infamous red card. It was yet another sterling example of the extraordinary lengths superstars will go to when they know it might be—or in Zidane’s case, would be—their last shot at another slice of glory. 

That thought alone is enough for any soccer fan to ponder the desperation and drive that Ronaldo and Messi will show in Qatar. The fight for a 50-50 ball, the scrum during a corner, the huff of breath before a free kick or the dazzling hellbent run from their final third to the opponents’ penalty area. Just imagine the last 30 minutes of a potential knockout game (or final) in which Argentina or Portugal is tied or trailing, and how that alone would push Messi and Ronaldo to summon every fiber in their being to will their teams to victory. And then imagine stoppage time, and the ticking seconds and pounding heartbeats before the final whistle. 

Ponder that moment and bask in it, because it is near, and because what will follow will be either glory or more heartbreak, quite possibly for the final time on the World Cup stage. Both can lose, but only one can win; and even though we are still months away from finding out which one will occur, the thought is enough to electrify.

Sports Illustrated may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.