The End of an Era

Morgan Gibson and Yan Diomandé headline not only this summer’s largest transfers, but also the importance of the winger in modern football. As the game continues to evolve, more and more focus is placed on bringing wingers who may be hits.

While this trend enriches certain players and clubs, it has become the death knell for the number ten.

Until the 2010s, the number ten stood as the sport’s most important and glamorous position. Kaka, Zidane and Maradona, among others, became legends, solidifying the role’s status.

When Messi became Messi, the sport changed forever, especially when he moved from the ten spot out on the wing. The stylistic changes which followed revolved around the creation coming from the wings, but not as crossers, but as number tens. Even players who see themselves in that mold, Jude Bellingham for example, aren’t traditional tens, more like ten-nine hybrids.

Turn back to the summer of 2020 and the best example of players being phased out lies in James Rodríguez joining Everton. With Carlo Ancelotti as manager and a lifeline to restart his career, the Toffees presented a great chance to the Colombian. While he didn’t truly fail at Goodison, the game passed beyond the needs of players like the mercurial talent.

Gibson’s move to Chelsea not only shocked fans but also reflected the way the game changed. Everyone wants to be a winger, and every team needs a good one, which means that other positions and roles suffer.

Entering the new millennium, the central attacking midfielder ruled everything around the game.

These number tens demanded the largest transfer fees, took part in massive marketing campaigns, and had teams built around them.

Offenses ran through creative players like these, acting as the pivot from defense to attack. Wingers existed to react to passes or movements from the creative hub; in turn, they would dribble and cross. Strikers resembled the mold that had existed for the majority of the sport’s existence: big bodies used to break down backlines and finish chances.

While the striker position changed in the subsequent decades, there’s been a recent return to the targetman. Headlined by Haaland and Gyökeres, among others, the role came back as teams desired more physicality to open up play for wingers.

Pep’s Barça changed the game unlike any other side in modern football, as the ramifications of the explosion of tiki-taka are still being felt. The reactions to that style, including Arteta’s side, can draw their roots back to the teams that tried to stop Pep. By playing a fast-paced style based on keeping position, everyone needed to become a playmaker.

As with almost anything in the past decade, Messi’s impact on football is felt especially on the shift from the ten to the era of the winger. Tied forever to Pep’s revolution, Messi did make his own impact on the position by becoming one of the greatest scorers from out wide. While he now plays more like a striker, his prime ushered in the era of the modern winger.

Gareth Bale presents a great example of how wingers changed over the course of the early 2010s. Starting his career as a fullback before transitioning to the wing, he broke out as a pacy winger who could whip in powerful crosses. However, Bale became a star the moment he was allowed to cut in and attack defenders to get shots on goal.

For well over a decade, football’s continued evolution came at the cost of the number ten.

The modern obsession with finding the next Messi, Neymar or Ronaldo can all be traced back to the explosion of tiki-taka.

The 2014 World Cup stands as a dividing line between eras. Teams still feature number tens who ran their team’s systems, but wingers started creeping in.

No player since James Rodríguez has come to define a World Cup as an individual. Subsequent tournaments saw incredible performances, but the Colombian maestro dominated everything about it. Silky dribbles, insane passes and some of the best goals ever scored at a World Cup made Rodríguez a legend.

By the time he arrived in Merseyside, the memories and the player himself felt like such a distant memory. A dream move to Real Madrid fell apart, as the team moved away from a system that favored number tens to the era of BBC. Zidane’s tenure as Madrid coach ended any hope for the Colombian in the Spanish capital.

Feeling like a bad omen, a decent loan spell with Bayern Munich failed to revive the career of the 2014 World Cup star. Despite struggling to break out under Carlo Ancelotti, the Italian manager brought him in to elevate his Everton side.

A duo of an iconic manager and a footballing legend with a middling Everton side felt like a fever dream. However, like other number tens before him, Rodríguez fit in well in the Prem. In his single season with Everton, he showed that there was still gas left in the tank, even if the club slowly moved him to the wing.

Even as he found some success at the individual level with Everton, the club’s inability to move past its chaos limited his own revival. Additionally, the more archaic system used to get the best of Rodríguez made the club easier to exploit. No matter how well the Colombian played, it never mattered to the team’s ultimate success.

The unraveling of Rodríguez’s career shows how cruel the sport can be.

A player who gave the World one of the best World Cup performances ended his career, at the club level, as a nomad.

Football, like every sport, goes through various cycles, with different styles coming in and out of fashion. The need for players like James Rodríguez, despite their brilliance, dissipated well over a decade ago.

One day, the era of the winger will come to an end, but will it allow for the number ten to return?