Five players from previous eras who could have broken the Messi-Ronaldo dominance

1980s Diego Amando Maradona

Diego Maradona is considered by many to be the greatest player of all time

The greatest player in history? Diego Maradona is widely considered by a lot of pundits and fans to be the greatest player of all time, and was voted as the joint FIFA Player of the 20th Century in 2000 along with Pele.

He was known for his dribbling, skilful nature, sharp reflexes and quick reaction time; Maradona was the epitome of perfection on the football pitch, effortlessly gliding past numerous players at a time, despite usually being earmarked for rough tackling by opponents.

Nicknamed "El Pibe de Oro" ("The Golden Boy"), Maradona put in one of the most dominant individual displays in a World Cup tournament when he almost single-handedly led Argentina to victory at the 1986 Mundial in Mexico, especially in the quarter-final against England, where he scored two very popular goals for contrasting reasons, first with what has been dubbed 'The Hand of God' where he used his arm to lift the ball over Peter Shilton's reach, with the goal awarded as referee Ali Bin Nasser hadn't seen the foul.

The second is widely considered to be the Goal of the Century and involved Maradona embarking on a 60m mazy run from midfield and dribbling across the England defense, leaving a hapless Shilton sprawling on the floor before slotting into an empty net.

As controversial as he was talented, Maradona courted attention wherever he went, for both positive and negative reasons, and was the first player to break the transfer record twice, first with his 1982 transfer to Barcelona, and two years later to Napoli.

Despite all his controversies, what cannot be denied Maradona is his charismatic abilities and influence to lift his team.

Countless players have been named as his heirs, but it is one of the subjects of this piece (Messi) that has come most close to reenacting his legacy, and indeed, both players are extremely similar in style, playing pattern and stature. Maradona dominated his era, and there is no doubt that if he were to be in this generation, he would have had a huge say in Messi and Ronaldo being considered the best of their generation.