The Messi-Ronaldinho Situation

Ronaldinho missed the biggest game of the season so far with a "minor knock", whatever that may be. So ruled out of the clash against Sevilla FC but surely in against Zaragoza in midweek. No, not again. Not even against poor relegation candidates Levante who confronted the brunt of Thierry Henry's ruthless efficiency in front of goal at the weekend. Ronaldinho's brother Roberto has already been voicing this ill treatment and ventured as far as to suggest a "conspiracy" to eject his brother from the club: the club wants to convince everyone, so the controversy drags, that it is Ronaldinho himself and not the club who is responsible for his eviction.

Missing training sessions, out of matches, substitutions in games that he did feature in at the start of the season, raging talks of an internal "conspiracy" and boardroom leaks have all contributed to the mounting speculation that Ronaldinho is up for sale and the likely buyer who can afford the transfer is Chelsea. Barcelona have denied any talks of Ronaldinho's departure all the time and the latest club release dismissing all such gossips came only last week. But this is football where a rumour once planted grows bigger and bigger. In the wake of the ongoing muddle both at Camp Nou and across the English Channel at Stamford Bridge, the future of Ronaldinho hangs in the balance.

The aura of indispensability has been ripped apart or be it unwillingly by the subtle rise of a certain Argentinean. Most of the sensible ones who watch football are convinced that he is the best talent yet to have emerged out of the South American nation after Diego Armando Maradona and in the last couple of weeks, Lionel Messi has been illustrating why. Still only 20 and with the physique that gifts him the appearance of a mid-adolescent, Messi demonstrated that one doesn't necessarily need a captain's armband to steer the ship.

Messi was the best player on the pitch against 6 times reigning French champions Olympique Lyonnais in the UEFA Champions League a fortnight back when he almost single-handedly lead Barca to a impressive 3-0 win at Camp Nou. Three days fast forward and against Sevilla, Messi marked its 50th anniversary of Barcelona at Camp Nou with a superbly taken volley and a coolly slotted penalty. All the marks of a genuinely brilliant player could be observed in Messi's demeanor that night including that famous thumb-and-little-finger celebration now so keenly identified as a Ronaldinho trademark.

Against Zaragoza in midweek too, Messi was the conductor of the Barcelona symphony. His opener was the product of his own architecture and he followed that up with another before long. At the weekend, again there was no sign of Ronaldinho anywhere and Samuel Eto'o was only in the stands as he has been wonted for quite a number of weeks now with injury but there was Messi all right. He engineered two of Henry's three against Levante and scored one himself too. Goals seem to come for free and as a mode of having some fun for the world's best young player.

This is football, a cruel world where heroes and demi-gods fall off the tightrope more quickly than a drunkard outside a toddy house and Ronaldinho is abruptly waking up to the brutal realization. He was once the Messiah for this Barcelona Cathedral but now he is the naughty boy. Wiz-kid Lionel Messi is fast approaching to replacing him in that Messiah hot seat although Messi is not the egoist character to blow his trumpet and beat his own drum. Before the Lyon game, Barca were in apparent crisis with positive results thrown out of the window and style almost non existent. But Messi has changed all that. Hard to judge on the basis of the opening month or so of the new season but Barca are playing the best football in Spain and at the heart of it all, is the 20-year old Lionel Messi. So the two times FIFA World Player of the Year winner Ronaldinho has been displaced from the centre of the web. Will he be expelled from the entire network?