Watching Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo trudge wearily about their new surroundings this season has given a clear message that a game-changing era in football is at an end.
Ronaldo rocked up at Manchester United as the returning hero in August, but he now tends to neither score nor move all that often and decided the best course of treatment for a hip flexor problem on Manchester derby weekend was to spend several hours on a private plane.
As for Messi, there is an uncomfortable repeating theme for arguably the greatest player of all time in the autumn of his career. He stands, ashen-faced and helpless as a Champions League humiliation unfolds around him.
The latest instalment came on Tuesday - Messi’s Barcelona past and Paris Saint-Germain present crashing together on the patch of the old enemy Real Madrid.
It was Kylian Mbappe, not a diminishedMessi, who led the charge for PSG before all the contradictions of wonky ego-led squad building came crashing down on Mauricio Pochettino and his players.
The Messi-Ronaldo era, where the two greats have shared 12 of the past 13 Ballons d’Or on offer between them, is unparalleled in football history. Two players dominating alongside each other for so long to this extent is unprecedented. Previously, a select few would duke it out to be considered the best in the world for a few years before a new crop swept them away.
This is the norm to which you would expect everything to revert, but we also all love a narrative. Two towering talents and their army of advocates battling against one another has been beyond tedious at times, but we’re creatures of habit.
The assumption is that, in the corner opposite the supreme Mbappe, Erling Haaland will continue to make his case through an awesome weight of goals.
Mbappe v Haaland is set to be the new Messi v Ronaldo, meaning the significance of reports Manchester City have a deal in place to sign the Norway striker from Borussia Dortmund can be lost on no one.
Real Madrid are long-time admirers of Mbappe, and the Times has reported that the LaLiga giants’ designs on the French forward are one of the reasons Haaland has put any ambitions of his own to play at the Santiago Bernabeu on hold.
MEN Sport understands City are "cautious" over their chances of signing the son of former club captain Alf-Inge Haaland but are in "pole position" to make the deal happen.
Haaland and Mbappe can only realistically become the galacticos they promise to be by steering clear of one another’s orbit, even if we acknowledge the dubious outcome of Neymar’s shadow-escaping move away from Messi and Barcelona in 2017.
At the risk of wading into one of the most maddening debates on the entire internet, Messi generally holds sway over Ronaldo in the final analysis. The foundations for his imperial period were laid by Pep Guardiola, whose generation-defining playing model at Barcelona provided the perfect platform for him to flourish.
That solid ground now resides in Manchester, with City continuing to reap the benefits of the Guardiola project six years in. A clear sense of playing identity and minimal chaos gives them an environment Madrid, Barcelona and most other super clubs lack.
Haaland would benefit from that along with the supporting cast already in place. His potential link-up with a fellow 21-year-old is particularly mouthwatering.
Phil Foden was magnificent as City swept aside Haaland’s Dortmund and Mbapee’s PSG in last season’s Champions League. After the Dortmund match at the Etihad, fans were enraptured by his conversation with Haaland and what that might mean. Following a sparkling cameo in Paris this season, Neymar made a beeline for him. Game recognises game.
There is no other player in world football more worthy of being considered the third wheel in the Mbappe-Haaland conversation than the lavishly talented Foden. If he wasn’t a scrawny kid from south Manchester (although, not too scrawny anymore - just ask Aaron Wan-Bissaka), he would probably be listed more frequently alongside two men who look more like footballing Adonises.
Foden’s precocious gifts will continue to blossom whoever City bring in to helm their attack. Haaland should recognise the ‘Stockport Iniesta’ can simply be his own Iniesta, leading the creative department to service his ambitions, just as the great Andres for Messi at Barcelona.
Whether he daubs whatever he fancies on a blank cheque to stay in Paris or makes Madridista dreams come true, Mbappe will not enjoy such favourable circumstances. By joining City, Guardiola and - perhaps most significantly of all - Foden, Haaland will secure the prime launchpad in superstar football’s latest race for the stratosphere.
Do you think Phil Foden belongs in the same company as Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe? Follow the City Is Ours editor Dom Farrell on Twitter to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
