It’s a question that football fans around the world have been asking themselves for several years: what happens if Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi one day hang up their shoes? Who follows in the footsteps of the two players who for almost a decade and a half have almost always chosen the trophy for the best footballer in the world?
This was already mentioned in an interview with Ronaldo in 2015 BT Sport one of the topics. The now 36-year-old Portuguese was asked which young players could one day take over the roles of himself and Messi and dominate world football.
The first name Ronaldo gave was that of Martin Odegaard. “At 16 he’s still very young, but you can tell he’s a very good player,” said CR7 at the time. He knew Odegaard very well from Real Madrid, of course, the Norwegian midfielder had recently moved to Los Blancos.
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Cristiano Ronaldo also named Hazard and Pogba
Today Odegaard is 23 years old – and at least he didn’t make his breakthrough at Real. Nevertheless, the super technician showed the great potential in him at several loan stations and last summer Arsenal signed him for 35 million euros. At the Gunners, Odegaard is a regular and currently one of the most important players.
Which four other actors did Ronaldo predict a great future at the time? “Hazard (Eden, the editor) is another example. Depay, the number 7 of Manchester United (at the time, the editor) is very good. And then maybe Pogba and Neymar.”
We analyze one after the other: Eden Hazard was already a seasoned star player at Chelsea, and continued to develop in the years that followed. At his heyday with the Blues, the Belgian was always on the threshold of the very best players in the world – but that has changed since his move to Real Madrid in summer 2019.
At Los Blancos, Hazard first arrived with fitness problems and was then repeatedly thrown back from injuries. To date, he has never been able to meet expectations in Madrid and at the age of 30, the career of the offensive player is clearly on the decline.
Memphis Depay: New momentum in Lyon, now at Barca
For Memphis Depay, things never worked out at Manchester United the way he had imagined. After only one and a half years, he left the English again and then gave his career new impetus at Olympique Lyon.
The now 27-year-old Dutchman is now employed by FC Barcelona and is one of the hopes for a better future there.
Where Paul Pogba’s future lies beyond the coming summer is meanwhile open. Not only would Ronaldo have expected an even bigger career from the French at the time of his testimony, but Pogba is still world champion and still one of the best midfielders there is. His contract with Manchester United expires at the end of the season, after which he could leave the English to another top club.
Meanwhile, Neymar is still waiting for his first Ballon d’Or. For many years the Brazilian was considered the “best of the rest” behind Messi and Ronaldo and the most logical successor, but many injuries have prevented him from being named the best footballer in the world. The now 29-year-old attacker has remained the most expensive player of all time since moving from Barcelona to PSG for € 222 million in 2017.
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