To the generation that raised us: A thank you letter to football's greatest era

Most football fans don't remember their lives in years. They remember them in the four-year cycle, also known as the FIFA World Cup.

Germany 2010 was where many of us first discovered Lionel Messi. South Africa came with the sound of vuvuzelas, Diego Forlan's left foot and a young Thomas Mller announcing himself to the world. Brazil in 2014 was impossible to look away from. 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 their promised land, after 16 long years, lifting the trophy after beating Argentina 1-0 in the final. Lamine Yamal, still eligible to play for Spain's youth team, looked ready to lead football into its next chapter. France's Kylian Mbappe had made the World Cup his own in 2018, became the highest goalscorer in FIFA World Cup history at just 27. Erling Haaland finally got the stage his talent had long deserved. Looking back, it feels strange how normal it all seemed.

Every World Cup had its own story, but the cast barely changed. Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo remained at the centre, while Neymar, Modric, Neuer, Salah and De Bruyne kept convincing us they'd be back again four years later. None of us really stopped to consider that one day we'd watch a World Cup knowing it might be the last time they all shared the same stage.

Now, almost without noticing, the air around the room has noticeably changed.

Kids growing up today will spend the next decade arguing over Yamal and Mbappe the way we argued over Messi and Ronaldo. Haaland will be part of those debates too. They'll wait four years to watch them on football's biggest stage, copy their celebrations in school tournaments and build memories around them, just as we did.

That's what football has always done. One generation inspires the next before quietly stepping aside.

This World Cup just happened to be the one where many of us realised it was finally happening to ours.

A GOAT DEBATE

What I don't think we'll ever be able to explain to the next generation is just how much fun this era was to live through.

It wasn't only about the goals or the trophies. It was everything that came with them.

Every school had a Ronaldo fan spending lunch break trying to perfect that famous free-kick technique, convinced that the next one would finally dip. Someone else wanted to glide past defenders like Neymar, usually ending up on the ground instead. If you played in midfield, chances are you've attempted an outside-of-the-boot trivela because Luka Modric made it look effortless. And every goalkeeper who wandered 30 yards off his line owed at least a little debt to Manuel Neuer.

Then there were the arguments.

For nearly two decades, football revolved around one question that never really had an answer. Messi or Ronaldo?

One represented effortless genius. The other relentless perfection. Messi drifted through defenders as though the ball belonged only to him. Ronaldo attacked every match as if he still had something to prove. One made football look like art. The other made it look like obsession.

The numbers only fuelled the debate. Together they scored more than 1,700 senior career goals, won 13 Ballons d'Or, lifted nine Champions League titles and rewrote almost every goalscoring record imaginable. From 2008 to 2023, only Luka Modric managed to interrupt their grip on football's highest individual honour.

But statistics were never what kept the rivalry alive.

Classrooms, WhatsApp groups, office canteens and late-night conversations all sounded the same. Everyone had an opinion, everyone believed they were right and nobody had any intention of changing their minds.

You'd wake up to YouTube clips, screenshots of obscure statistics and another debate waiting before breakfast. By the time you reached school, college or work, the match had already kicked off again.

We never realised 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 argue about Yamal, Mbappe, Haaland or someone we haven't even heard of yet. Those debates will matter just as much to them.

But they'll 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 let the other stand alone. Whether you wore Argentina's Abiceleste or Portugal's red, whether you shouted "Messi" or "Ronaldo", we all ended up watching something the sport may never produce again.

NOT JUST RONALDO VS MESSI

Messi and Ronaldo took up most of the oxygen, but that's also what made the rest of this generation so easy to take for granted.

Take Neymar.

You didn't have to support Brazil to stop and watch him. Some tuned in hoping he'd dance past another defender. Others were convinced someone would eventually kick him out of the game. Either way, you watched. He finished as Brazil's all-time leading goalscorer with more than 440 senior career goals, won league titles in Brazil, Spain and France, lifted the Champions League and was one of the most gifted footballers of his era. Yet the conversation around him always circled back to the same question: what if injuries had simply left him alone?

Modric never needed the spotlight. There was never anything loud or flashy about him, until you'd glance at the clock after 90 minutes and realise he'd quietly run the entire game. He made football look ridiculously simple while everyone else chased shadows.

Then he'd do the same for Croatia, dragging a nation of barely four million people further than anyone thought possible. Russia 2018 was the moment the rest of the world finally saw what Real Madrid fans had been watching every week. He carried Croatia to a World Cup final, won the Golden Ball and later ended the Messi-Ronaldo Ballon d'Or monopoly. If you still need convincing after all that, his body of work speaks for itself. Modric will retire as one of the greatest midfielders the game has ever seen, and that's something even Barcelona fans would probably admit. They just won't say it too loudly.

Salah carried a different kind of expectation. Every time Egypt played, it felt as though an entire country was waiting for him to make something happen. He never had the luxury of the squads France or Argentina could put around their stars, but belief in him never faded.

At Liverpool, consistency became his trademark. Season after season he cleared 30 goals, then disappeared into another international break carrying the hopes of more than 100 million Egyptians. There was a reason people joked they'd 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 how people viewed De Bruyne. He saw passes before anyone else did, won everything there was to win with Manchester City and, even without the international success that generation chased for so long, remained one of football's finest midfielders.

And Neuer? He probably owes youth coaches everywhere an apology.

Before him, goalkeepers stayed in goal. After him, every teenager wanted to be a sweeper-keeper until the first heavy touch reminded them why Manuel Neuer was Manuel Neuer.

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 hands the game to the next, often without even realising it's happening.

Lamine Yamal's football story began in the most extraordinary way imaginable. At just four months old, he was given a proverbial baptism by Lionel Messi during a charity photoshoot. Years later, Messi became the player he idolised, the reason he fell in love with football.

This summer, with Messi watching on, Yamal lifted the World Cup with Spain at just 19 years old. It felt like football pausing for a moment to acknowledge the passing of the torch. The little boy who once looked up to Messi has become the player another generation will now dream of becoming.

Kylian Mbappe tells a similar story.

Cristiano Ronaldo posters filled the walls of his childhood bedroom. The 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 leading goalscorer and the benchmark for a new generation of forwards. Somewhere, another child is already trying to sprint like Mbappe in exactly the same way he once tried to sprint like Cristiano.

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

And it isn't just the forwards.

There was a time when every conversation about the world's best midfielder drifted towards Luka Modric, Andrs Iniesta, Xavi or Toni Kroos. The next decade will probably belong to Jude Bellingham, Rodri and whichever teenager is quietly announcing himself while we're all looking somewhere else.

One day, today's children will write nostalgic pieces about Yamal, Mbappe, Haaland, Bellingham and Rodri. They'll insist football was better when they were growing up, just as every generation before them has done.

Maybe they'll even be right.

As for me, I'll always believe my generation had the greatest cast football has ever assembled. Messi. Cristiano. Neymar. Modric. Iniesta. Xavi. Salah. De Bruyne. Neuer. And so many others who made every weekend, every Champions League night and every World Cup feel like an event.

There was a time when discussions about the world's best midfielder inevitably drifted towards Luka Modric, Andres Iniesta, Xavi or Toni Kroos. The next decade will probably belong to names like Jude Bellingham, Rodri and whichever teenager is quietly announcing himself while we're all looking somewhere else.

One day, today's children will write nostalgic pieces about Yamal, Mbapp, Haaland, Bellingham and Rodri. They'll insist football was better when they were growing up, just as every generation before them has done.

And maybe they'll be right.

As for me, I'll selfishly keep believing my generation had the best cast of footballers the game has ever assembled. Messi, Cristiano, Neymar, Modric, Salah, De Bruyne, Neuer and so many others set a standard that will be almost impossible to match.

But football has always proved that anyone who says, "We'll never see that again" is just sticking to nostalgia.

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

Because if the game has taught us anything, it's that somewhere, on some dusty pitch or academy training ground, another kid is already falling in love with football by trying to be the next star.

And that's how every era begins.