It turns out that 2022 wasn’t Lionel Messi’s last dance after all. He will turn 39 during the World Cup, but despite concerns over the “muscular overload” that led to him limping out of Inter Miami’s 6-4 win over Philadelphia Union on Sunday, he remains the figure on whom Argentinian hopes rely.
Messi won’t be the only veteran in Canada, the US and Mexico: Cristiano Ronaldo, aged 41, will also be there – inevitably, given how his career and Messi’s seem inextricably bound. So will Luka Modric and Edin Dzeko, plus the goalkeepers Manuel Neuer, Craig Gordon, Guillermo Ochoa and Vozinha, all of whom are 40. And there is one 39-year-old other than Messi: the Japan defender Yuto Nagatomo.
That is seven players aged 40 or older, a remarkable number given that only seven players have previously played at the World Cup having reached that age. The oldest was Essam El Hadary, who played in goal at the age of 45 years and 161 days when Egypt lost to Saudi Arabia in 2018. Both countries were already out and there were some qualms that he had been picked out of sentiment, a tribute to one of the undoubted greats of the Egyptian game, but he saved a penalty and performed well enough to justify selection.
Goalkeepers, not surprisingly, make up the majority of the previous seven. Faryd Mondragón, aged 43 years and 3 days, came on with five minutes remaining in Colombia’s 4-1 win over Japan in 2014. In his case, there was no doubt he was being introduced purely so he could become the oldest player at a World Cup.
There was no such favouritism, though, being shown to Pat Jennings in 1986, Peter Shilton in 1990 or Tunisia’s Ali Boumnijel in 2006, and certainly not to Dino Zoff when he captained Italy to World Cup victory in 1982. He had been heavily criticised after the 1978 tournament, but his late save, plunging on to an Oscar header, was just as vital in the 3-2 win against Brazil as any of Paolo Rossi’s three goals.
The exception is Roger Milla who, after coming out of retirement to inspire Cameroon in 1990, returned in 1994, aged 42, to become the oldest outfielder at a World Cup. He came off the bench against Brazil and Russia, scoring in the latter game, although his side were already 3-0 down and went on to lose 6-1.
But whatever the details, the comparison is striking: there could be more players over the age of 40 at this World Cup than in the 22 previous tournaments put together. In part, that is perhaps because of the expansion of the tournament. Vozinha is a regular for Cape Verde – he’s certainly not going for sentimental reasons – but would his team have qualified for a 32-team World Cup? And would a team ranked higher than 69th in the Fifa standings be going to the World Cup with a goalkeeper who plays for Chaves in the Portuguese second division?
And in part it’s because sports science has improved. Injuries that once would have ended a career can be overcome. Nutrition is far better. Footballers no longer sink double digits of pints every time they get a day off. Understanding of recovery, stretching, prehab and rehab have all improved. While the 500-game rule still seems to hit some players, others are going on for longer. To take just two examples, James Milner, born 1986, and Robert Lewandowski, born 1988, have only recently begun to show signs of wear.
Modric and Dzeko are diminished by age, but they are, fairly clearly, the best Croatia and Bosnia and Herzogavena have to offer in their respective roles. Messi’s case is more questionable – however dangerous he looks in MLS, he is evidently not capable of operating at the highest level in Europe.
But it would be hard to say with any great certainty that Argentina would be better off had he been phased out. It remains just about conceivable, given the nature of international football, that Julian Álvarez and Messi’s clubmate Rodrigo De Paul can again do his running for him and that Messi’s capacity to produce a defence-splitting pass or other moments of inspiration will make it worth the sacrifice.
But Ronaldo is not the player he was. He is not even the player he became after he ceased to be the player he was. He lumbers about in an increasingly small sphere of influence, still decent in the air, still a good finisher, but barely able to move, lacking the explosive power that once made him great. He has won the Saudi Pro League this season, but that is less an endorsement of him than an indictment of the league.
Even at the last World Cup he seemed like a burden. When he was left out for Gonçalo Ramos against Switzerland, Portugal found renewed pace and verve and scored six, Ramos getting three of them. Yet still fans in the stadium called for Ronaldo, the biggest cheers coming as he came off the bench and then marked an obviously offside goal that was swiftly disallowed with his trademark celebration; a part of modern football is obsessed by personality and spectacle.
The danger is that Ronaldo’s presence could mean that a potentially brilliant generation of Portuguese creators is never truly unleashed. That is the irony of the suspension for his red card against Ireland being commuted; it may represent a preposterous injustice as Fifa ensures the biggest names are on the field as much as possible, but it will probably end up hampering Portugal.
There is no doubt Ronaldo is in incredible shape – for a 41-year-old. Nor is it wrong to point out that, Ronaldo aside, Portugal have not produced a world-class centre-forward since Eusébio. But there comes a point at which his immobility makes him an albatross and any halfway competent forward who can move is a better option.
The continued presence of familiar faces may be testament to how much better players are at looking after themselves than they used to be, but, in at least one case, it is also evidence of the modern world’s obsession with celebrity.
