When the opening bell of international football chimes this week, the sport would mourn the passing from the field of two immortals. The planet officially steps into the post-Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo era. When the national anthem blasts, nostalgia would crawl in, memories would gush forth, tears would be shed, and the men in No 7 and No 10 would look different.

For much of their century, Messi and Ronaldo embodied two opposing spectrums of the sport’s fascination to characterise its lead act. In real life they could be even similar, both were bestowed with virtuosic qualities although manifested differently, both had a spiritual devotion for the sport, an obsession that was not bordering on madness, but madness itself, and equals locked in a perpetual battle for greatness. Debates and arguments could rage on forever and not produce a single definitive conclusion on who the first among the equal, was. It doesn’t matter, and perhaps stems from the man’s instinct to fight. They can’t take up arms. So they pick footballers, place them in enemy camps and combat each other in an imagined realm. Both of them could be enjoyed wholesomely—preferences are utterly subjective, depending on taste, sensibility and loyalties.