Sports.

Spain ended both farewells at once — the World Cup that was supposed to be Messi's or Ronaldo's last stage closed without either of them on it. Two decades of a rivalry that sold jerseys, filled stadiums, and built a business worth billions ended not with a final, but with an absence. The narrative engine that ran world football for twenty years simply had nowhere left to go.

Football's biggest rivalry didn't end with a farewell final. It just stopped happening.