The generation that raised us: a thank you note to football’s greatest era

Most football fans do not remember their life in years. They are commemorated in a four-year cycle, also known as the FIFA World Cup.

Germany In 2010, many of us discovered Lionel Messi for the first time. South Africa came to the sound of vuvuzelas, Diego Forlan’s left foot and a young Thomas Mller announcing himself to the world. There was no looking away from Brazil in 2014. James Rodriguez couldn’t stop scoring, Neymar carried the weight of an entire nation until injury cut his tournament short, and Germany somehow scored seven goals in a World Cup semi-final. Russia belonged to Luka Modric. Qatar finally belonged to Messi.

Then came North America. Spain returned to its promised land after 16 long years, lifted the trophy after beating Argentina 1-0 in the final. Lamine Yamal, still fit to play for Spain’s youth team, looked ready to lead football into its next chapter. France’s Kylian Mbappe made the World Cup his own in 2018, becoming the all-time top scorer at the World Cup at the age of just 27. Erling Haaland has finally reached the stage his talent has long deserved. Looking back, it’s strange how normal it all seemed.

Each World Cup has had its own story, but the cast has hardly changed. Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo remained at the centre, while Neymar, Modric, Neuer, Salah and De Bruyne kept convincing us that they would be back four years later. None of us stopped to think that one day we would be watching the World Cup knowing that it might be the last time we all shared the same stage.

Now, almost imperceptibly, the air around the room changed noticeably.

Kids growing up today will spend the next decade arguing over Yamal and Mbappe like we argued over Messi and Ronaldo. Haaland will also be part of those debates. They will wait four years to watch them on football’s biggest stage, copy their celebrations at school tournaments and build memories around them, just like we do.

That’s what football has always done. One generation inspires the next before quietly receding.

This World Cup happened to be the one where many of us realized that it had finally happened to ours.

THE GOAT DEBATE

I don’t think we’ll ever be able to explain to the next generation how much fun it was to live through that era.

It wasn’t just about goals or trophies. It was all there was to them.

In every school, there was a Ronaldo fan who spent his lunch break trying to perfect that famous free kick technique, convinced that another would finally take the plunge. Anyone else looking to slip past defenders like Neymar usually ends up on the ground instead. If you’ve played in midfield, chances are you’ve tried the trivel out of the boot because Luka Modric made it look effortless. And any goalkeeper who strayed 30 yards from his line owed at least a little debt to Manuel Neuer.

Then there were the arguments.

For nearly two decades, football has revolved around one question that has never really been answered. Messi or Ronaldo? The 2026 World Cup could be Messi and Ronaldo’s last. (Photo by Reuters)

One represented effortless genius. Another relentless perfection. Messi weaved his way through the defenders as if the ball belonged only to him. Ronaldo attacked every match as if he still had something to prove. One made football look like art. For the other, it looked like an obsession.

The numbers only fueled the debate. Together they scored more than 1,700 goals in their senior careers, won 13 Ballon d’Ors, won nine Champions League titles and broke almost every goal scoring record possible. Between 2008 and 2023, only Luka Modric managed to break their stranglehold on football’s highest individual honour.

But stats were never what kept the rivalry alive.

Classrooms, WhatsApp groups, office canteens and late night conversations sounded the same. Everyone had an opinion, everyone believed they were right, and no one had any intention of changing their opinion.

YouTube clips, screenshots of obscure statistics and more debate would wake you up before breakfast. By the time you arrived at school, college or work, the match had already started again.

We never realized we were documenting an era while we were living it. We assumed those conversations would always be there.

One day today’s young generation will be arguing about Yamal, Mbappe, Haaland or someone we haven’t even heard of yet. These debates will be equally important to them.

But they will have an impossible act to follow.

Because we were lucky enough to witness the only era where two of football’s greatest players refused to leave the other alone. Whether you wore Argentina’s Abiceleste or Portugal’s red, whether you shouted “Messi” or “Ronaldo,” we all ended up watching something that the sport may never bring again.

NOT JUST RONALDO VS MESSI

Messi and Ronaldo consumed most of the oxygen, but that’s also what made the rest of this generation so easily taken for granted.

Take Neymar.

You didn’t have to support Brazil to stop and watch him. Some tuned in hoping to dance past the next defender. Others were convinced that someone would eventually kick him out of the game. In any case, you were watching. He finished as Brazil’s all-time top scorer with over 440 goals in his senior career, won league titles in Brazil, Spain and France, lifted the Champions League and was one of the most gifted footballers of his era. But the conversation around him always came back to the same question: what if the injury just left him alone?

Modric never needed the spotlight. There was never anything loud or flamboyant about him until you glanced at the clock after 90 minutes and realized he had been running the game quietly. He made football look ridiculously easy while everyone else was chasing shadows. Luka Modric will go down as one of the best midfielders of all time. (Photo: Reuters)

Then he would do the same for Croatia, taking a nation of barely four million people further than anyone thought possible. Russia 2018 was when the rest of the world finally saw what Real Madrid fans have been watching every week. He led Croatia to the World Cup final, won the Ballon d’Or and later ended the Messi-Ronaldo Ballon d’Or monopoly. If you still need convincing after all that, his work speaks for itself. Modric will retire as one of the best midfielders the game has ever seen, and Barcelona fans would probably agree. They just don’t say it very loudly.

Salah carried a different kind of expectation. Every time Egypt played, it felt like the whole country was waiting for him to make something happen. He never had the luxury that France or Argentina were able to build around their stars, but the belief in him never faded. Mo Salah carried Egypt to football’s biggest stage, all on his shoulders. (Photo: Reuters)

At Liverpool, consistency became his trademark. He erased 30 goals season after season, then disappeared into the next international break with the hopes of more than 100 million Egyptians. There was a reason people joked that they would vote for him if he ever ran for president.

Then there was Kevin De Bruyne, the quiet genius of Belgium’s golden generation.

Belgium never found the trophy everyone expected them to win, but that never changed people’s view of De Bruyne. He saw passes before anyone else, won everything there was to win with Manchester City, and even without the international success that a generation had been chasing for so long, he remained one of football’s best midfielders.

And Neuer? They probably owe youth coaches an apology everywhere.

The goalkeepers stayed in the goal in front of him. After him, every teenager wanted to be a sweeper goalkeeper until the first heavy touch reminded them why Manuel Neuer is Manuel Neuer. Manuel Neuer returned to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. (Photo Reuters)

Maybe that’s what this generation really was.

Not just Messi and Ronaldo, but the feeling that wherever football took you, there was always another player worth watching.

NOW IT’S THEIR TURN

It never really ends, does it?

One generation quietly passes the game on to the next, often without realizing it’s happening.

Lamine Yamal’s football story began in the most unusual way imaginable. At just four months old, he was baptized by Lionel Messi during a charity photo shoot. A few years later, Messi became the player he idolized and thus fell in love with football.

This summer, with Messi watching, Yamal lifted the World Cup with Spain aged just 19. It felt like football paused for a moment to acknowledge that the torch had passed. The little boy who once looked up to Messi has become a player that the next generation now dreams of. Yamal to Messi was the moment we passed the torch. (Photo by Reuters)

Kylian Mbappe tells a similar story.

Posters of Cristiano Ronaldo filled the walls of his childhood bedroom. Admiration was never a secret. Today, Mbappe is no longer the boy chasing his hero. He is a World Cup winner, the tournament’s all-time top scorer and a benchmark for a new generation of strikers. Somewhere, another kid is already trying to sprint like Mbappe in exactly the same way he once tried to sprint like Cristiano.

Erling Haaland feels like a story of patience rewarded. For years we wondered if Norway would ever give him the World Cup stage his talent deserved. Now they have, and it’s hard to imagine another major tournament without it. Some players come with hype. Haaland arrives with the expectation that the goals will follow.

And it’s not just attackers.

There was a time when every conversation about the world’s best midfielder turned to Luka Modric, Andres Iniesta, Xavi or Toni Kroos. The next decade will likely belong to Jud Bellingham, Rodri, and whatever teenager is quietly applying while we all look the other way.

One day today’s kids will be writing nostalgic pieces about Yamal, Mbappe, Haaland, Bellingham and Rodri. They will insist that football was better when they were growing up, just like every generation before them.

They might even be right.

As for me, I will always believe that my generation had the best football squad ever assembled. Messi. Christian. Neymar. Modric. Iniesta. Xavi. Salah. De Bruyne. Neuer. And many others who make every weekend, every Champions League night and every World Cup feel like an event.

There was a time when discussions about the best midfielder in the world inevitably turned to Luka Modric, Andres Iniesta, Xavi or Toni Kroos. The next decade will probably belong to names like Jude Bellingham, Rodri and whatever teenager is quietly applying while we all look the other way.

One day today’s kids will be writing nostalgic pieces about Yamal, Mbapp, Haaland, Bellingham and Rodri. They will insist that football was better when they were growing up, just like every generation before them.

And they might be right.

As for me, I will selfishly continue to believe that my generation had the best cast of footballers the game has ever assembled. Messi, Cristiano, Neymar, Modric, Salah, De Bruyne, Neuer and many more are setting a standard that will be almost impossible to match.

But football has always proven that anyone who says “we’ll never see that again” is just clinging to nostalgia.

So while I will always call my generation the greatest, I will leave the door open.

Because if the game has taught us anything, it’s that somewhere, on some dirt field or academic practice field, another kid has already fallen in love with football by trying to be the next star.

And so every era begins.

– The end

Issued by:

Debodinna Chakraborty

Published on:

25 Jul 2026 16:13 IST