Where's the next football god?

In this new series, The Straits Times takes a deep dive into the hottest sports topic or debate of the hour. From Lamine Yamal's status as the next big thing to the burgeoning popularity of pickleball, we'll ask The Big Question that will set you thinking, and talking.

- David Lee Senior Sports Correspondent

A shiny Ballon d’Or trophy now sits in Ousmane Dembele’s collection, but let’s be real, the France and Paris Saint-Germain forward is not yet sparking greatest-of-all-time debates around the water cooler.

Over the last few decades, football fans have been spoilt by the likes of Pele, Diego Maradona and, more recently, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Three-time Ballon d’Or winner Michel Platini described Pele’s play as godlike, shrines have been built to worship Maradona, while Ronaldo and Messi have also attained similarly rarefied status.

But as the current greats enter the twilight of their careers, it begs the question: Where is the next football god? Where is the next bona fide star who can drag his team across the line to victory, and drag fans out of bed at night to catch his wizardry?

If we start in the 1960s, there was the seamless transition from one legend to the next — Pele was succeeded by Johan Cruyff in the 1970s, Maradona in the 1980s, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo Nazario and Ronaldinho in the 1990s to the 2000s, then Ronaldo and Messi in the 2000s to the 2020s.

But is there a worthy successor now?

WHAT MAKES A PLAYER GREAT?

James Walton, sports business group leader of Deloitte Asia Pacific and Southeast Asia, noted that what sets the greats apart from cult heroes is they must have a “consistent body of work and a certain character about them”, which makes them impossible to ignore.

He told The Straits Times: “Cult figures like George Best, Salvatore Schillaci, Eric Cantona, Fabrizio Ravanelli, Paul Gascoigne and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are mavericks who came and did something spectacular for a moment or relatively short period of time.

“Most people don’t know Roger Milla outside of scoring and dancing at a couple of World Cups and Rene Higuita will be remembered for his scorpion-kick save but not the clubs he played for.