Some say that technical changes are the mirror of what surrounds us, some say that they are a natural process, others still assert that they are the result of forcing in the service of other interests, they are the consequences of extra-field necessity.
We can provocatively say one thing, the change it is not always synonymous with evolution.
Especially in football, in the overexposed one, in the media and circus one which is dividing the old generations and which aligns the future ones.
Mine is certainly that more disoriented, in which it is more difficult to identify, in which to choose is practically impossible.
On and off the pitch.
My generation is the last of the whole sock and of the suburban clay court, of the Stadium as the best solution and of Sunday as unique day of the Lord and the Balloon. But it is also the first of technology as an indispensable tool for life, of pay TV and social media.
A generation inserted in a vortex of information without a user manual and that had to write it on its own.
A generation that built myths in a world that no longer exists and which today appear decontextualized, romantic stories from some era ago.
Yet only 25 years have passed.
If we really want to make a synthesis we find it in Ronaldo, in the name and in the facts.
From Ronaldo to Ronaldo, from Nazario to Cristiano, from Fenomeno to CR7.
Two Champions who come out of the ordinary but who trace the change and photograph the discomfort of my generation.
Ronaldo, the Brazilian, at the end of the 90s was inserted in a competitive and "impactful" context at the height of his expression, where the attackers reached the lowest point of protection, where they went slower but clashed stronger . Christian, by convention, is expressed in a dizzyingly paced game and where the average expression rate of the offensive phase is certainly higher. Faster matches in which functional skills are decisive where you run more and collide less.
And the rough and dull context of the late 90s is unleashed with the glossy and politically correct one of the present in which the Ronaldos are sized as symbols of before and after.
Because if this football exists today we owe it to the beaten and unattainable talent of Ronaldo, a current player in an ancient world.
And I'm sure there will also be a post-CR7 football where the meticulous, manic and surgical attention to the pursuit of perfection as a means to victory will condition the development of new changes.
Two faces of the same surname, two realities of beginning and end.
Today's football starts with Ronaldo and reaches Ronaldo, the change that takes place in all versions.
Technique, tactics, arbitration, media, social.
The two mark the definitive passage from opposition football to identity football, from exasperated to necessary football, from football for all to football for all.
We are inside, today almost forty, who find ourselves not only choosing but teaching and making people choose, knowing that the best answers come with today's language but yesterday's message.
Someone will ask but who would you like on your team?
You can find my answer in the definition of change, which is not always synonymous with evolution.
Article From Ronaldo… to Ronaldo From Sports born.
