??lionel messi and cristiano ronaldo have forged modern football
?梅西和c罗描写了现代足球a new book explores their influence on and off the pitch
?一本新书谈论了他们在绿茵场表里的影响力?
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winning the ballon d’or, an award given to the best male footballer in the world, is considered one of the crowning glories of a player’s career. only a handful of athletes have won the prize twice; marco van basten, johan cruyff and michel platini each prevailed three times.?
?金球奖是公布给世界上最优良的男人足球运建议的奖项，
荣获该奖被认为是球员作业生计的至高荣誉之一。能两次获奖的球员屈指可数；三次获奖的仅有范·巴斯滕、克鲁伊夫和普拉蒂尼。for a decade, lionel messi and cristiano ronaldo turned the ballon d’or into a duopoly. between 2008—when mr ronaldo first won the award—and 2021, the pair claimed every ballon d’or between them.
?十多年来，金球奖成了梅西和c罗的双雄对决。从2008年c罗初度获得金球奖到2021年，二人包办了每届金球奖。never have the highest reaches of football been dominated by the same two men for so long. in “messi vs ronaldo”, joshua robinson and jonathan clegg, two journalists at the wall street journal, attempt to understand how they have done it.?
?此前足坛之巅从未被相同两人控制如此之久。在《梅罗之争》一书中，《华尔街日报》的两位记者约书亚·罗宾逊和乔纳森·克莱格企图弄理解他们是如何做到这一点的。talent?is part of the story.?both players combine?relentlessscoring—they are the all-time top goalscorers in la liga, spain’s top division, and the champions league, the leading european club competition—with brilliant passing. at their best, they function both as their side’s main creator of goals and the main scorer of them.
?天资是一方面。两人都是西甲联赛（西班牙顶级联赛）和欧冠（欧洲顶级沙龙竞赛）的前史最佳射手，一起他们还具有过人的传球才能。在巅峰时期，他们既是球队的首要攻手，也是首要的得分手。the pair’s influence also reflects globalisation, modern technology and football’s growing clout. when mr messi played for barcelona, he had a say in transfers and even managerial appointments.
??两人的影响力也反映了全球化、现代科技以及足球日益增加的影响力。当梅西为巴萨罗那效能时，他在球员转会甚至打点层录用上都有讲话权。his sway was such that, when a club employee argued that mr messi “would not be as good” without the help of his team-mates, the staff member was quickly dismissed “for having publicly expressed a personal opinion that does not match that of the club”. mr messi’s salary—555m ($577m) over his last four years—almost bankrupted barcelona.
??他的影响力如此之大，致使于当一名沙龙职工称，假定没有队友的协助，梅西“不会体现得这么好”时，这名职工很快就被辞退了，“因为他揭露表达了与沙龙观点不相符的自个观念”。梅西曩昔四年的薪资一共是5.55亿欧元（约合5.77亿美元），几乎让巴塞破产。when mr ronaldo moved from real madrid to juventus in 2021, his new club gained a vast number of social-media followers while his old one lost hundreds of thousands. traditionally, fandom means following a particular team regardless of its squad; for many in the age of mr messi and mr ronaldo, it has become about following players instead.
?2021年，当c罗从皇马转会到尤文图斯时，他的新店东在交际媒体上收成了许多粉丝，而他的老店东却掉粉数十万。传统上，“球迷”是指跟从某支球队的粉丝，而不关乎球员的更迭；但在梅西和c罗的年代，许多球迷只跟从特定球员。from 2009 to 2021, when both men played for spanish teams, every clash doubled up as a referendum on which man was the superior star. if mr messi—for his grace in playing the game and sense of play—was football’s roger federer, then mr ronaldo was its rafael nadal: less artistic, more physical, his career a triumph of sheer bloody-mindedness.?
?从2009年到2021年，两人都为西班牙的球队效能，每次敌对都成了一次关于谁是更优良球星的公投。假定说梅西可谓足球界的罗杰·费德勒（因为他在竞赛中所展示的典雅和纯真的高兴），那么c罗就是足球界的拉斐尔·纳达尔（少了一些艺术，多了一些敌对，他的作业生计朴实是血性的成功）。mr messi has?eschewed?publicity and mr ronaldo has embraced it. (see the recent interview in which he criticised his current club, manchester united.) but the authors argue that such contrasts overlook the players’ “mutual understanding”: “that their most important business partner is the other”. if there is no friendship between the two, neither is there real?animosity.
?梅西一向躲避大众的重视，而c罗怅然承受。（看看他迩来批判曼联的采访吧。）但两位作者认为，这样的比照无视了两位球员的“彼此了解”，他们懂得?亲钪匾纳桃祷鸢檎嵌苑健薄＞退懔饺酥涿挥杏岩辏敲床换嵊姓媸档拇跻狻ged 35 and 37, mr messi and mr ronaldo, albeit a little diminished, continue to play on, apparently motivated less by what they can achieve at their clubs than on the international stage, for argentina and portugal. both have won one major international tournament. the weeks ahead offer the tantalising possibility that one of the pair might win the prize both covet most: the world cup.
?梅西和c罗本年别离是35岁和37岁，尽管状况略有下滑，但都还奔驰在绿茵场上，鼓励他们的显着不只是在沙龙获得作用，而更多是别离代表阿根廷和葡萄牙征战世界舞台。两人都赢得过一次国家大赛。在接下来的几周里，他们中的一自个可以会赢得两人都最盼望的奖杯：世界杯。
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重难点词汇：
?relentless [r??lentl?s] adj. 不接连的；持续的；不留情面的；严格无情的
?eschew [?s?t?u?] v. 避免运用；避开；躲避
?animosity [??n??mɑ?s?ti] n. 歹意
?tantalise [t?nt?laiz] vt. 使…干着急；逗弄
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