The new era of the Champions League: without Messi or Ronaldo after 20 years, but with Erling Haaland as heir to the throne

They were protagonists of the greatest, most fabulous and most important rivalry in the history of football. Their fight for who was the best was seen in the Champions Leaguethe most valuable tournament at the club level that today begins its 69th edition with a peculiarity: after 20 long years they will not be there, Lionel Messi neither Cristiano Ronaldo.

How important have the Argentine and the Portuguese been in the contest? One piece of information answers the question: In fact, for twelve consecutive seasons (from 2007-08 to 2018-19) the top scorer was one of the two. Another one in case it’s not enough: they are the ones with the most podiums for Best Player with nine for the Portuguese and seven for the Argentine; They are followed by the Belgian Kevin De Bruyne with 4, half. Not to mention the titles: five for the man who defended the shirts of Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus: four for the one who wore the blue of Barcelona and the dark blue of PSG.

To find the last Champions League in which both were not, you have to go back to the 2002-03 season. in which the Milan of Dida, Maldini, Pirlo, Shevchenko and Inzaghi emerged champion by beating the Juventus of Buffon, Montero, Davids and Del Piero. All of them have already retired.

Twenty editions later, on March 8 of this year, the last meeting took place with the presence of one of the biggest stars that this tournament had in its history: Messi, with PSG, was beaten 3-0 by Bayern Munich in Germany . At that time, Cristiano was already in Saudi football.

They faced each other six times: ‘CR7’ won a semi-final and a group stage duel, ‘Pulga’ won a ‘semi’ and a final. But beyond that, they marked history in the most relevant championship at the club level. And they will be missed from now on.

Haaland’s City, everyone’s favorite

The stellar era of Messi and Christian It ended a few years ago. Since then they began to name figures as possible successors. The one that has come closest, in terms of numbers, is Erling Haaland, the intractable scorer who scored 12 times last year to become the top scorer. Furthermore, he became champion with the Manchester Citythe machine that Pep Guardiola has managed to perfect.

For this edition that begins today (Milan-Newcastle and Young Boys-RB Leipzig will open the curtain), Haaland’s City starts as favorites.

The superiority of the English over the rest is so great that the second team with the most chances is the Bayern Munich (10.2%) that for this campaign he signed Harry kane so that it is the ‘9’ that makes people forget Robert Lewandowski.

Arsenal, for its part, will return to the competition after six long seasons. But this time, with Mikel Arteta on the bench and after a great season in the Premier despite losing the title recently, they are potentially candidates with 7%, a few steps ahead of real Madrid (6.6%) that will not have at the beginning Vinícius Jr. and in much of the championship with Thibaut Courtois.

City will also make its debut today (2 pm) against Red Star at home. A golden opportunity for Erling Haaland Start your scoring path towards your main objective: surpassing your 12 goals from the last edition.