Ronaldo and Neymar: Knowing When to Let Legends Go

The Hardest Decision in Football: Knowing When to Let Legends Go

There are very few moments in football that genuinely hurt as a fan.

For me, one of them came before Euro 2008 when Spain manager Luis Aragonés announced his squad and left out my favourite striker growing up, Raúl González.

Raúl wasn't just another player. He was Spain's captain, the country's all-time leading scorer at the time, and the face of Spanish football. As a supporter, I was devastated. I thought Aragonés had made a terrible mistake.

Then Spain won the tournament.

Looking back, I realized something that has stayed with me ever since: international football isn't about rewarding the greatest careers. It's about selecting the team that gives you the best chance of winning today.

That lesson came rushing back to me while watching Portugal and Brazil exit the 2026 World Cup.

This isn't about disrespecting two all-time greats. Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar have given their countries unforgettable memories and changed football forever. But World Cups are not lifetime achievement awards. They are won by the team that is strongest in the present.

Aragonés understood that in 2008.

He had the courage to move forward because Spain possessed an incredible new generation. David Villa and Fernando Torres were entering their prime, while the midfield of Xavi and Andrés Iniesta was ready to redefine international football. It wasn't an easy decision, but it was the right one.

That is the standard by which every international manager should be judged.

Portugal's situation was admittedly more complicated. I don't believe Ronaldo should have been left out of the squad. Even at this stage of his career, his experience, mentality and ability to produce a decisive moment still had value.

But value and automatic selection are two different things.

Against Spain, the game cried out for fresh legs, aggressive pressing and movement in behind the defence. That felt like the perfect moment for Gonçalo Ramos. Instead, manager Roberto Martínez never turned to him.

Sometimes loyalty becomes stubbornness.

For me, Brazil's decision was even harder to understand.

The team looked quicker, more direct and better balanced with players like Vinícius Júnior leading the attack. Then Neymar came on, and the rhythm changed. Brazil pressed less aggressively, the attacking structure shifted and Norway found more space to play through.

Against a striker as devastatingly efficient as Erling Haaland, giving away that extra freedom can be fatal.

What made the decision more questionable was that Brazil had alternatives.

Richarlison may not possess Neymar's extraordinary technical ability, but he has been in better physical condition and offers relentless pressing, constant movement and the willingness to do the unseen work that tournament football often demands.

That doesn't make him the better footballer.

It may simply have made him the better fit.

Modern football has become unforgiving.

Every forward is expected to press.

Every attacker is expected to defend.

Every player is expected to sacrifice for the system.

The margin between winning and losing is often determined not by talent alone, but by intensity and collective balance.

There is another consequence that often gets overlooked.

When legends remain at the centre of a team beyond their physical peak, it isn't only their own legacy that is affected. Their inclusion can unintentionally limit an entire generation of players who may never get another opportunity on football's biggest stage.

Portugal and Brazil were blessed with extraordinary talent. Players in or around their prime such as Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Vitinha, Nuno Mendes, Vinícius Júnior and Bruno Guimarães should have been the faces of their nations' World Cup campaigns.

Instead, the tournament once again revolved around whether Ronaldo and Neymar could summon one final miracle.

When those miracles never arrived, everyone paid the price.

Those players left the tournament with the same disappointment despite being in the years that should define their international careers. Four years from now, there are no guarantees. Injuries happen. Form disappears. New generations emerge. Some players never make another World Cup. Others return diminished versions of themselves.

A World Cup is too precious to postpone.

Managers are not simply choosing the best eleven for today's match. They are deciding whether an entire golden generation gets the opportunity to fulfil its potential while it is still at its peak.

That is why Luis Aragonés' decision nearly two decades ago still resonates with me today.

He taught an entire generation of football fans that no individual—not even a captain, not even a record goalscorer, not even a personal hero—is bigger than the team.

As painful as it was then, it became one of the defining decisions in Spanish football history.

Perhaps that is the hardest lesson every national team eventually has to learn.

The greatest tribute a manager can pay a legend is not giving them one last start.

It is having the courage to give the team its best chance to win.

Because sometimes, by holding on to the past for just one tournament too long...

...the future is made to wait.