IN the second decade of this millennium, European football came to rule the world in a way it had never quite managed previously.

True, it has long been the case that the top European teams have been able to attract the planet’s best players, whether by cachet or cash. If anything, that migratory trend is strengthening: despite attempts from rich clubs in China and the Middle East, a handful of huge brand names are greedily gathering global talent into ever-larger squads.

Where the decade we must inelegantly call the 2010s differs from the others is in international football, which has witnessed unparalleled European domination.

The 2014 World Cup final defeat was particularly disappointing for South America’s greatest footballing export of the century, the extraordinary Lionel Messi. Born in Argentina but spirited away to Europe by FC Barcelona at age 13, the 5ft 7in (1.7m) forward has played 521 games for the Catalan superclub this decade and scored 522 goals.

Messi has won football’s highest individual prize, the annual Ballon d’Or, five times out of the last 10. Four of the other five were won by Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese forward who has spent the decade in a globe-straddling shootout with his rival, scoring 477 in 490 games for Spanish aristocrats Real Madrid and latterly Italian giants Juventus while also helping his country to glory at the 2016 European Championships.

Those two stood head, shoulders, chest and torso above the rest of the decade’s players, despite many of their nearest rivals being teammates. Most top-20 lists would include Luka Modric, Gareth Bale, Marcelo, Eden Hazard and Toni Kroos, who shared a Real Madrid dressing room dominated by Ronaldo; they would also feature Neymar, Luis Suarez, Andres Iniesta, Dani Alves and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, all current or former Barcelona buddies with Messi.

Those same best-of lists would almost certainly not feature a single player who hadn’t played in Europe, regardless of background. The Brazilian great Pele led his country to three World Cup wins in four tournaments between 1958 and 1970, but never played club football outside the Americas. Nowadays, any player who featured — no matter how brilliantly — in even the biggest leagues of South America, Asia, Africa and North America without testing his mettle in a European league would be regarded with suspicion.

There is a clear pecking order of clubs, with millions of young players worldwide dreaming of playing for Real Madrid or Barcelona, perhaps via Manchester United or Bayern Munich or a “smaller” club in a “minor” European league. Club football isn’t a level playing field, it’s a ladder.

With Messi now 32 and Ronaldo 34, the new decade will belong to other, younger players, but it’s a fair bet that many of the new contenders will follow in their footsteps not just metaphorically but literally, by representing the two clubs those giants of the game have graced so brilliantly — and helped to dominate the decade.

Real Madrid and Barcelona have attracted such talent because they are truly huge institutions: Barcelona, who to some represent Catalonia itself, use the tagline Mes Que Un Club (“More than a club”). And they have won seven of the last 11 finals of the Champions League. (CGTN) SD-Agencies