END OF AN ERA? On Wednesday, France Football announced their shortlists for this year’s Ballon d’Or but they cruelly omitted Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi from the men’s lineup, as neither appeared alongside the likes of former Charlton winger Ademola Lookman, one-time Leyton Orient loanee Harry Kane and ex-Rotherham goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez. Instead, for the first time since 2003, CR7 and Messi are wondering what to do with an empty diary when October’s shindig comes around. How has it come to be that these two legends of the game are being told they are not good enough? Has no one explained to France Football about Ronaldo’s 44 goals in 45 matches for Al-Nassr in 2023-24? It is a major shun for the Saudi Pro League, which some people think is a retirement village where residents are paid handsomely for wandering the grounds. But not everyone can thrive in such a climate: just look at Jordan Henderson, who managed six months of plodding around Al-Ettifaq’s pitch in front of 7,000 spectators. Henderson struggled so much that he had to retreat to the warming bosom of Ajax. Meanwhile, Messi already has 11 goals in 12 matches in 2024 and is still in his prime at a sprightly 37. To be fair, he captained Argentina to Copa América success, too, but he was only able to perform on the international stage thanks to MLS preparing him for the rigours of giving Ecuador, Canada and Colombia a shooing. Messi was even called up to play in an All-Star game, not many can say that. Admittedly, he was knacked and could not play but that’s not the point. The sad truth is that age catches up with everyone, even the Social Media Disgrace warriors steeped more in acceptance than anger, knowing this is the “end of an era”. They couldn’t go on for ever pummelling decent teams; sometimes it’s nice to open the scoring in a 1-1 draw against Al-Raed, or to defeat a team from Nashville. It can’t all be about Big Cup, the Premier League or La Liga for these lads, they need to pass the baton on. And the next generation is ready to take over, don’t worry about that. There is young whippersnapper Granit Xhaka, 32 later this month, Roma’s Mats Hummels, 36 in December, and the retired Toni Kroos. It’s impossible to keep up with that pace, even for the best of us. Messi and Ronaldo are the best of enemies – you cannot have one without the other. Everyone knows that. LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE Join Scott Murray from 7.45pm BST for hot minute-by-minute coverage of Scotland 1-1 Poland in the Nations League. QUOTE OF THE DAY “It is true that it is a relatively small number compared to the almost 780,000 matches that are played annually, but we are not going to trivialise it. We have a problem, and we want to eradicate it. I do not rule out that we will one day stop using assistant referees” – Dutch FA president Jan Dirk van der Zee admits it is considering whether to bin the offside law in amateur football, due to the rising number of matches halted by violence over disputed decisions – last season, it was 1,864 of them, a 58% rise in the past five years. FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS After watching Hampton & Richmond Borough score a late winner at Weymouth in National League South on Tuesday night, at the end of the match the entire squad came to the away end and shook hands with, or fist-bumped, every single travelling supporter. There were only 14 of us, but you wouldn’t get that from Chelsea is all I’m saying” – Tony Whybrow. I for one am all in favour of dynamic pricing (yesterday’s Quote of the Day). As a Partick Thistle supporter, I look forward to my face-price £22 ticket being sold on matchday for £1.75 with a bonus pie thrown in for good measure” – Peter Allan. You ask whether morning kick-offs may become a thing (yesterday’s Football Daily, full email edition). I recall back in October 2005, Manchester City played Everton at the ungodly hour of 11.15am on a Sunday morning. A stupidly early start for travelling fans, with the vagaries of Sunday bus and train services, no pubs or bars open before kick-off and while people complain about the current lack of atmosphere at the Etihad, there was a very good reason why it was non-existent that day. Needless to say, this was all to suit pay-per-view TV so as not to clash with the afternoon’s ‘Super Sunday’ (Arsenal v Birmingham, plus Liverpool v Chelsea)” – John Caley.