End of an Era: The Champions League without Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi

A fantastic stage of football is coming to an end: for the first time in 20 years, the Champions League will not have two of its best footballers of all time. Neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi will be part of the next European tournament.

With the transfer of Lionel Messi to Major League Soccer, the United States League, Europe is going through the end of an Era. It is that, previously with the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Saudi Arabia and now with the departure of the Argentine, the Old Continent will lose two of the best footballers of all time.

In turn, for the first time in the last two decades, the Champions League will not see either the Portuguese or the Argentine. The last time this event had happened was in the 2002/03 edition and, since then, every year they saw one or the other play.

The first to do so was Cristiano Ronaldo in the 2003/04 season, making his debut on October 1, 2003 with the Manchester United shirt in what would be a 2-1 defeat against Stuttgart. Since then, the Portuguese player has given the present 183 times over 19 seasons, wearing the United, Real Madrid and Juventus shirts, scoring 141 goals and lifting the trophy five times.

A year later the opportunity would come for Lionel Messi. On December 7, 2004, the man from Rosario would have his first time in the highest European competition in the duel between Barcelona and Shakhtar Donetsk, suffering a two-nil defeat in what would be the last game of the group stage. Since then, the Argentinian accumulated 163 commitments, concretizing 129 goals being in the Spanish group and in the French PSG, and obtaining the trophy in four occasions.

Two decades later, neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Messi will be part of the Champions League that will begin in the second half of 2023. Without a doubt, football is at the end of an Era…