With Cristiano Ronaldo 33 on Monday and Lionel Messi the wrong side of 30,who are Europe’s bright prospects shaping up to be inheritors of the Ballon d’Or duopoly’s crown?“A very good question,” mused Cristiano Ronaldo as he basked in the glory of his moment successive Ballon d’Or and fifth overall back in December. “I see some with much potential: Asensio, or Mbappé,Neymar, Dembélé, or Hazard,Rashford … and some others. In the next generation there are at least 10 players with very, very much potential.”It’s more than a decade since Milan’s Kaká became the final player external of the Ronaldo-Lionel Messi duopoly to walk absent with football’s highest individual honour. But with the Real Madrid forward celebrating his 33rd birthday on Monday and Barcelona’s talisman now the wrong side of 30 having also accumulated a record five Ballon dOrs since he burst onto the scene as a teenager, or the discontinuance of their era is almost upon us.
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Source: guardian.co.uk