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TSN Soccer Analyst

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Alain Prost was genuinely surprised.

The Frenchman was enjoying the first few weeks of his retirement from top level sport and suddenly something happened that made him shake his head.

Prost had spent a career behind a race car prepared for everything and anything that came his way. Known as 'The Professor', he calculated many scenarios in his head while at a high speed and very often defeated his opponents in this manner.

His fiercest of all opponents was of course Ayrton Senna and their clashes, and sometimes crashes, lasting six years through seasons 1988-1993, transported Formula One into living rooms worldwide, brightening Sundays with breathtaking brilliance and bonafide bickering. All at sensational speeds. It was a ravishing rivalry between Formula One's best two drivers that took a sport to a pinnacle; the peak that everyone within the sport today and for the rest of its lifetime will always look fondly up to.

The final act came after the 1993 season when Senna made his final move, convincing the best team in the world, Williams, to hire him alongside Prost who had cruised to the World Championship that season in the best car. Prost wanted none of it and retired, money in hand for 1994 after Williams had broken their word, and Prost's contract, by signing Senna.

Senna had found his way into the best car. Or so he thought. However, his plan had consequences and Prost headed back home for good.

"He started calling me and telling me things, opening his heart and I was completely surprised because I was not a friend. He told me 'Alain I am not motivated to race against these guys, please come back'" recalled the Frenchman.

Tragically, Senna would only start three more races without Prost, their careers, in vastly different ways, ending at a similar time. The pair had divided a sporting planet whilst collectively conquering it leaving their place in history by opening the world's eyes to what true greatness really is.

Sporting eras are often determined by the performance of elite individuals. True greats of sport are born when they reach a summit where, simply, the very good aren't capable of going and this can often lead to many leading solo journeys within their own discipline towards the pantheon of sporting greatness. Prost and Senna were different. They had each other and, as Senna proved in his final months, needed each other as well.

Out of the Senna-Prost era Formula One followed a similar pattern to many other sports where the aforementioned solo trips to the pantheon were far more evident. Many drivers since have won races, some more than Senna and Prost, but no statistics can prove that anyone was as good since and much of that comes down to the fact that the pair had each other.

It was already the early hours of Monday morning when Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo separately travelled the road out of the Camp Nou in Barcelona following another El Clasico. The pair headed in very different directions as Monday broke dawn on a new international window and temporarily said goodbye to a thriving club scene that is rapidly heading to an enthralling climax.

A new crescendo had been reached in the final hours of Sunday as the world's finest footballers went head-to-head in a top of the table clash between two of the world's most famous teams. No other matchup in the sport can boast as much world class talent on the field at the same time, yet it speaks to the remarkable talent of Messi and Ronaldo that they continue to stand out way above the rest. The night was far from a real classic, although you'd be mistaken to think it was anything worse than average. The mere presence of so many fine footballers in once place was enough to encapsulate millions worldwide whose Sunday was, fittingly, brightened with breathtaking brilliance and bonafide bickering.

The match presented its viewers with a challenge, one this generation will always lose to those of the past. With Messi and Ronaldo on the same field together, there was little excuse for eyes to wander elsewhere. This was not an event to be taken in by Twitter Vines or edited match highlights later. Such choices will have satisfied those wanting to see Ronaldo's goal, the visitor's only one on the day, but missing will have been the 30-year-old's touch and turn in its buildup, his 26 steps forward, including two that deceived Javier Mascherano, one of many outstanding opponents in his way, before finding space to poke home a truly inspirational bit of creativity from a teammate in Karim Benzema.

Also missing will have been Messi's contributions, which have always been more than the final touch on a ball before it hits the net. Two Messi moments, separated by four minutes in the second half, were enough to get many out of their seat as he started with his back to goal, in possession, before pirouetting to move in the right direction, gliding across the ground with the football completely mesmerized by its master, Messi's left boot, anxiously awaiting its next destination which is so often somewhere gloriously comfortable and met by a chorus of cheers. Those episodes of this mesmerizing drama were not as frequent as five days earlier when the Argentine tore Manchester City apart with a magnificent performance and it was that level of skill that rightfully elevated Messi, alongside Ronaldo, to a level no other player is close to as El Clasico prepared to kick off.

Messi didn't score against Real Madrid or Manchester City but he didn't need to. Ronaldo did and, apparently, it was his 15th El Clasico goal. Numbers everywhere follow these two sporting geniuses but we must be careful not to be slaves to statistics. Every Champions League match day, it is now presented to us that one has x amount of goals and another has x as if whoever is on top matters. Right now, with them at their peak and years from retirement, it simply adds another exclamation point to their greatness but to truly appreciate it is to watch it, not read it in the form of a mathematics table.

On Sunday, they were surrounded by some of the finest footballers around today. Many of them are already very good, others world class, on the pathway to potential greatness themselves, and that remains a valuable resource in gauging the level Messi and Ronaldo are at today. Numbers simply tell us absolutes, like results and goals, but you are judged on who you truly conquer and like Senna and Prost, who had fellow champions Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet and, later, Michael Schumacher to contend with, the array of talent with and against Messi and Ronaldo in 2015 tells us more about the level they are at than any amount of goals scored or trophies lifted.

Senna would go on to win three world titles and, although such crowns provided pillars for his legacy to be built, the true foundation was laid by moments in races. Numbers such as 65 (pole positions) and 41 (Grand Prix wins) showed the Brazilian had incredible success but those lucky enough to watch him regularly will not start a discussion around his greatness by talking about those numbers. Similarly, Prost, whose numbers are more impressive, is known just as much for how he achieved them, than what he achieved.

Messi and Ronaldo are no different. Some of Senna's greatest moments came in 1993, a season where he drove a significantly under-performing McLaren to five wins. He was never going to be champion but his greatness was further cemented by pulling the car beyond reasonable expectations. Messi and Ronaldo, rarely, get such trials with their club teams but we must remember what a massive undertaking it is for each to represent their countries in major tournaments when expectations are raised simply because of their involvement. Messi in the 2014 World Cup was like Senna in 1993, doing his best to drive forward a wounded team and occasionally showing breathtaking individual moments of brilliance along the way. Ultimately, he wasn't able to become a World Champion and for some that was enough for him to lose a laughably illogical comparison with a fellow countryman who shined over two decades earlier.

The flawed genius that was Senna was tested during such times to the point that his absorbing personality showed signs of bitterness as his rocky road with the sport's media continued. Like Ronaldo, perception was everything for Senna, who cared a great deal what people wrote and said about him. Unlike Ronaldo, Senna faced such times head-on believing he could win any battle, while the Real Madrid star, not surprisingly, recently reacted to a Champions League loss by saying he would no longer talk to the media for the rest of the season.

It is a much different media world that these two must now be famous in but it speaks to their personalities that a feud between the two has never truly developed even through hyperbole. Whatever you believe, it is clear they are not friends but instead are barometers for each other to continue to progress. For that we need to be thankful. Messi looks back to his best, playing at a level for Barcelona that, perhaps, he hasn't reached in three years. During that time it was Ronaldo who kicked into a new gear and was rightfully named the world's best player. FIFA's Ballon d'Or ceremony has many flaws but if you take anything out of it of substance, it should be Ronaldo's reaction to winning. Of course, he wants to be the world's best but with Messi around, he knows exactly what level that is.

Senna missed Prost when he left and soon afterwards everyone missed them both. They say greatness lasts forever but eventually we all just become witnesses with memories. Together Messi and Ronaldo continue to provide us with some wonderful material and for that we all need to be eternally grateful because times such as this do not come around too often.