Time is running out for football's golden generation. For some, it's the legs that have gone. For others, maybe untold riches and the lure of bleach-blondes have taken their toll. Whatever the reason, some of the greatest players the world has ever known are starting to fade away.

Despite being courted by Roman Abramovich at Chelsea, Ronaldinho's best days seem behind him. And his Barcelona team-mate Thierry Henry – terror of Premier League defences while at Arsenal – has hardly set the Nou Camp alight. Staying with Barca, Samuel Eto'o could have walked into any team in the world – however, as Eto'o can hardly walk these days there may be implications! The Cameroonian striker is still only 26 but constant injuries and his feuding with coach Frank Rijkaard have left him a shadow of the player who scored more than 50 goals in two fantastic seasons.

Chelsea's Michael Ballack is another fine player on the slide. Meanwhile, the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history, Ronaldo, now at AC Milan, has been watching too many cartoons and trying to emulate his hero Porky Pig ... another one bites the dust. And here's another one for the scrap-heap – the immortal Andriy Shevchenko, once arguably the best player in the world and described by many as the complete striker. But, alas, a fear of a low pension drove him to the hands of Russian sugar daddy Abramovich – a wrong path for him and for the club who blew £30m on him.

‘... the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history, Ronaldo, now at AC Milan, has been watching too many cartoons and trying to emulate his hero Porky Pig.’


So,with the golden generation slowly disappearing, who do we look to now? Well, instead of Ronaldinho we have Lionel Messi, one of the game's most exciting players at the tender age of 20. Many would pay just to watch him in action and he is joined by Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas, who is just a month or so older than Barcelona's Messi and already one of the world's most coveted youngsters.

Ballack could possibly be replaced by Seydou Keita of Sevilla, who had a wonderful game against Arsenal on Tuesday night, and let us not forget Samir Nasri of Marseille and Yoann Gourcuff of AC Milan. But there are other youngsters waiting to make the step up – Arsenal's Nicklas Bendtner, Armand Traore and Theo Walcott, Barcelona pair Giovanni Dos Santos and Bojan Krkic, Getafe's Ruben de la Red, Carlos Vela on loan from Arsenal at Osasuna, and Alexandre Pato of AC Milan, to just to name a few.

Promising defenders include Gerard Pique of Manchester United, Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos, and Johan Djourou, yet another Arsenal product who is on loan at Birmingham City. And let us not forget strikers such as the Gunners' Robin van Persie, Carlos Tevez of Man United  and Sergio Agüero of Atletico Madrid.

So maybe the old generation is waning ...to be honest, only the immovable Paolo Maldini seems to be standing the test of time.