Messi and Ronaldo exit World Cup without titles

If Argentina and Portugal won Saturday, the rivals would have matched up for a spot in the semifinals. Instead, they'll race to the airport. Argentina lost to France 4-3 in Kazan and Portugal fell to Uruguay 2-1 at Sochi.

Brazil's Pele and Argentina's Diego Maradona became national treasures at home, celebrated for World Cup titles and global superstars. Fans who never saw them play for their clubs know of Pele and Maradona's accomplishments every four years at the global tournament.

Messi and Ronaldo will be remembered for great club success, but not country triumph.

Barcelona signed the 13-year-old Messi to a contract scrawled on a napkin in 2000. He was 17 when he made his competitive first-team debut. Titles accumulated at an unprecedented rate: four in the Champions League, nine in La Liga and six in the Copa del Rey. Adulation at Camp Nou turned into worship; media called him "La Pugla (The Flea)" for his small frame and unparalleled acceleration, and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger equated Messi's moves with a video-game creation, proclaiming he was "like a PlayStation."He scored at a rate once unfathomable: 383 goals in 418 league matches, 100 in 125 Champions League games and 552 in 637 first-team appearances overall. He was a lifer for one of the most popular clubs in the world, a brand of his own, earning love in Spain but detachment from his countrymen in South America. Too often, his World Cup failures were compared to Maradona's successes.