So when talk comes of replacing him, things are never as straightforward as they appear. Whoever steps into those shoes, whether they wear no. 7 or not, will have more to do than just perform on the pitch… he will have to carry the team, become the talisman, the figurehead of one of the world’s greatest sporting entities.
The players we have chosen here, then, are all here as a result of not just their pure footballing capabilities but their ability to become the core around which Real Madrid can build their next big dynasty.
#6 Kylian Mbappe
The young man’s father apparently advised him not to join Real Madrid this summer because of what it would entail - an 18-year-old stepping straight into the cauldron of the Bernabeu isn’t the wisest thing to do. His love for Madrid, though, is evident… and a couple of years alongside Messrs. Neymar and Cavani at PSG will only serve to further improve his game… and strengthen him mentally to make him better suited to deal with what he will face in the white of Madrid.
Forget the hype and the hoopla surrounding him… this one is the real deal, and Madrid would be well advised to sign him on as soon as possible.
#5 Marco Asensio
While the natural tendency for most big clubs looking to fill superstar-sized holes in the team is to spend big and import a ready-made one from another big team, there often happens to be a simpler, cheaper, and equally, effective solution lurking within their own squad.
Marco Asensio has all the technical qualities you would want in someone you want to build a team around - that volley against Las Palmas, mamma mia! -and he seems to possess the kind of big-game temperament that is essential for a club like Madrid.
His skill, talent, and will-to-win make him the ideal candidate for grooming to be the next Cristiano Ronaldo and the appeal of this solution increases even further when we consider the fact that he’s learning something from the great man day-in and day-out in training.
#4 Antoine Griezmann
While the first two names on the list are youngsters who can eventually grow to replace Ronaldo, they do still require a measure of grooming… the next four names, though, are readymade solutions that you can drop into the Madrid squad right now and expect to take to the pressure, and the stage, like a fish to water.
Antoine Griezmann may be struggling at the moment for Atletico - but as he showed with France during the final qualifiers/friendlies, it could very well be down to the febrile combination of ill-suiting-formation, him-wanting-to-go, and Atleti as a whole not playing well - and his class should never be in doubt.
Capable of changing the course of the game, and entire seasons, with a swoosh of his boots, while celebrating it all with deliberate silliness, Griezmann is exactly the kind of celebrity that would love calling the Bernabeu home.
#3 Eden Hazard
When Eden Hazard is in full flow, there is very little anyone can do to stop him. Fast, possessed of the ability to dribble with the ball stuck at his feet and about as arrogant as Cristiano himself, he would fit right in on that left-flank for Madrid.
While Hazard’s talent has never been in doubt, it’s only his mental application that appears to be holding him back and a move away from the comfort zone he has build up at Stamford Bridge may be just the kind of boost he needs to spur him onto the kind of level that he has always appeared capable of reaching.
With Hazard looking for a step-up in a bid to become a genuine contender for the Ballon d’Or, this could just be a marriage that suits both parties to the T.
#2 Lionel Messi
Now, now, pitchforks down, please.
Lionel Messi is Barcelona… and it would be unthinkable if the great man were to waddle over to the Bernabeu and turn out in Madrid white, but then stranger things have happened in the mad world of football, haven’t they?
Ronaldo (O fenômeno) did not want to leave - but he left to Inter, and ended up at Madrid. Neymar did not want to leave - but he left to PSG, and may well end up at Madrid. Luis Figo did not want to leave, and at the time he was as much a fabric of Barca as Messi is now - but he did, and you know where he left to.
Despite Josep Bartomeu’s best PR-campaigns, the truth of the matter is that Lionel Andres Messi has still not signed a new contract at Barcelona, and will be free to sign a pre-contract with any potential suitors come January.
For Madrid, though, as much as the joy of the greatest F*** you in history would give them, the next option would be much more sensible thinking purely on long-term strategy.
#1 Neymar Jr.
Neymar Jr. is the heir to the throne that Ronaldo and Messi will have to vacate sooner rather than later, and he is the one footballer whose combination of pure technical talent, preening arrogance, and sheer ’leave-to-me-I’ll-take-care-of-it-all’ self-belief matches that of Ronaldo himself.
That legendary comeback against PSG, the 6-1, heralded the coming of age of Neymar as a bonafide superstar on his own right - something he accentuated further by guiding Brazil to the World Cup with absurd ease - and if he were to join Madrid on the back of successful campaign in Russia, he would lift everyone around him.
Besides, he loves playing with Marcelo working his magic behind him, doesn’t he?
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