There is no I in Team – as the old saying goes – but that ceased to matter when Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo emerged as the game’s chief proponents. Those two have contested an individual battle against each other for the best part of a decade with team clashes between Barcelona and Real Madrid at most a sub plot. We are living through a football age defined like no other by veneration of individuals.
Over the past 10 years football’s worldwide popularity has skyrocketed with Messi and Ronaldo at the forefront of public consciousness the world over. It is why the Ballon d’Or is now roughly equal to winning the Champions League in esteem. In years gone by, knowledgeable pundits would struggle to name three winners in a row. Now, there is a gala; football’s Oscars night. There is no missing it. That’s all down to Ronaldo and Messi, the standards they set on the field and the frenzy which has followed.
Access to games on TV has never been so broad and the time young people spend playing the FIFA video game gives them an affinity with a version of the best players that is not even real. Once upon a time the only live football a child saw would be local matches which a parent attended. That’s how their nascent loyalties were built. It doesn’t work like that anymore. It’s a big world out there and kids just getting into the game have every team and player to choose from.
Before European football went global – with the wealth and attention concentrated on a handful of clubs - fans loved players because they played for their team. That natural alignment is in the process of being subverted. Fans are drawn to teams because of the presence of certain individuals. Ronaldo, of course, is king among them
No comments:
Post a Comment