It's an end of the Ronaldo/Messi era, or very close to it, as these latest FIFA awards prove it. Messi was not even in top 3 and Ronaldo wasn't close to winning it. I think this is unjust for both of them. If we are being honest, what Messi is doing week in week out for the past season/year/right now is far ahead of anyone except Ronaldo. It simply isn't close. The likes of Hazard, Salah and Kane get praised to high heaven for doing anything remotely close, yet, Messi finds himself outside top 3.
Ronaldo, too, has been going downhill. His red card midweek, the award snub, departure from Madrid... these all show that. It's a coin toss whether Ronaldo or Modric should have won it, but the whole events of the past 2-3 months show that he is in the last phase of his career.
I just don't understand why so many (neutral) people are happy about the end of Messi/Ronaldo era either. Over the years, people have hyped up various alternatives to Messi and Ronaldo. One year it was Ribery, another year it was Sneijder, another year it was Neuer, and other times it was Xavi or Iniesta. Despite my love for the latter two, none of these guys were close to Messi and Ronaldo (the hype of Ribery and Sneijder were especially baffling). The current alternatives aren't any better either, Neymar, Salah, Hazard, de Bruyne, Modric... Some people will love this, its like going back to 90s or early 00s, that there are no such clearly dominant figures in football. But this is the end of the era of two of the very best footballers ever, historical players, I am a bit sad about it.
I watched the selected FIFA best goal of the year. I chuckled. That was a cracking goal, but Messi has scored a ton of them, countless numbers of these, and in fact, far better ones. If Messi does it (and he still does it regularly), people don't seem to appreciate it any more. I hope people realize that the likes of Salah and Hazard can play another 20 years and won't be anywhere close to either Ronaldo or Messi. All this talk of Hazard getting to their level makes me laugh.