Each possesses wonderful talent, each carries his nation's hopes at Brazil 2014 and each is labouring under pressure that would crush most men, writes Oliver Holt
World at their feet: Neymar, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo
Midway along Copacabana Beach, a sculptor has carved an ornate castle and three kings out of the sand.
The kings are easily recognisable from their shirts and their numbers: Neymar, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
These are the three men who have been elevated to the status of football royalty in the build-up to this World Cup.
They are the three players who have been anointed the stars who will light up the tournament in Brazil.
Each of them possesses wonderful talents. Each of them carries the hopes of his nation on his shoulders.
And each is labouring under the kind of brutal pressure that would crush most men.
Neymar, the new kid, the pretender, is at once in the best and the most invidious position of all three of them.
His first season at Barcelona was not an unqualified success and controversy over the terms of his £50million transfer from Santos last summer plunged the club into turmoil.
He has a slight frame but a majestic talent. He is a wonderfully skilled forward who often seems to produce his best football for his country.
But in a Brazil side that is built to be defensively solid, Neymar carries much of the attacking burden himself.
He is one of the only flair players in Luis Felipe Scolari's team and the onus will be on him to create and score the goals for the Selecao.
There was more evidence of quite how reliant the Brazilians are upon him when he was involved in an injury scare during training on Tuesday.
Neymar appeared to roll his ankle during a practice game at their Teresopolis base.
The footage, played over and over again in slow motion on Brazil's television networks, led bulletins and induced something close to a collective nervous breakdown.
After he had risen gingerly to his feet and limped away, Neymar appeared to be fine but all Brazil knows they cannot win the World Cup without him.
Messi has different pressures.
He has started to banish the criticism that he has never played as well for Argentina as he has for Barcelona. But for all his brilliance in La Liga, for all the times that his career in Catalonia appears to have been one long highlights reel, there is much for him to prove here in Brazil.
Many younger fans already consider Messi to be the best player the world has ever seen because of his performances for his club.
Those with a wider historical perspective insist he cannot be bracketed with Pele, Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane until he has pushed and dragged Argentina to a World Cup victory.
All three of those rivals have won the World Cup, and Maradona lifted an Argentina team inferior to the one Messi now graces to victory in Mexico in 1986.
This is surely Messi's best chance to gain entry to the pantheon where the greatest players in history are feted.
He has a wonderful phalanx of forwards to support him and players such as Javier Mascherano and Pablo Zabaleta to give him the platform to succeed.
Everything is geared around him - even the omission of Carlos Tevez from the squad is thought to be at least part based on the perception that Tevez and Messi do not complement each other's games.
Partly because of the pressure on Brazil, partly because of their own talents, partly because they have Messi, Argentina are the favourites of many to win the tournament.
If they fail to reach the final, expect a bout of reappraisals of Messi's standing among the best there have ever been.
His status as the world's best current player has already been usurped by the astonishing Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo carried his Portugal team into the finals by winning a breathtaking personal battle with Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the qualifying play-off against Sweden.
His first problem in Brazil is that Portugal are in a difficult group with Germany, Ghana and the USA.
But Ronaldo, 29, who inspired Real Madrid to their 10th European Cup/Champions League victory last month, is capable of lifting a side well beyond its normal limits.
Messi, 26, is a mesmerising dribbler and a clinical finisher, but Ronaldo at his best terrifies teams with his speed, his confidence, his athleticism and his sheer physical presence.
He is a phenomenon in the way that his Brazilian namesake once was, and even though Portugal are an ordinary team, they have an extraordinary player in their midst.
Ronaldo, perhaps, has the least to lose alongside Neymar and Messi - no one expects much of Portugal so if they excel, he will be hailed as the man who lifted them to new heights.
It is possible that Ronaldo and Messi could meet in a Portugal vs Argentina quarter-final.
What a contest that would be.
And what a clash of titans lies ahead. How the three superstars compare... Neymar? Messi? Ronaldo? Who'll be in YOUR Mirror World Cup Fantasy Football team? Click the link, make your picks and you could win £10,000!
Post By http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2014/neymar-cristiano-ronaldo-lionel-messi-3675825
0 comments Blogger 0 Facebook
Post a Comment