You may have noticed this week that World Football Daily’s twitter feed was posting some of the greatest football adverts from the last 20 –years or so. 

That’s right, it’s been almost 20-years since Eric Cantona brought Ronaldo’s lofted ball under control, turned up his collar and said those immortal words, “Au revoir.”

Since then we have been lucky enough to see Nike (and on occasion Adidas) produce some of the most enthralling 90-second commercials football fans have ever enjoyed.

We’ve watched as the 1998 Brazil side slinked and stepovered it’s way through the airport, only to see Ronaldo curl the culminating strike of his teammate’s hard work off the post of the airports makeshift goal. 

We were overjoyed to see Gus Hiddink telling a minivan full of stars that retrieving a football back from a hoard of, presumably, evil robots was of the upmost importance because the ball was, “rounded” at the start of ‘The Mission’.

If Gus had been so desperate to reclaim said ball, he should have thought about the problems of sending in a long haired, dreadlock sporting, Edgar Davids to break past the security field around the ball, thus turning the seemingly simple mission into a all at war with their metallic adversaries before a last launch to a waiting helicopter flung Oliver Bierhoff and the Dutchman to safety.  Whether the other heroes of that trip also made it out of the robotic lair alive before it exploded into smithereens is another question but maybe we’re just thinking about it too much here.

We were talking at the water cooler or in the school yard for hours about the 3-on-3 all-star tournament on the ship in international waters with Cantona making his triumphant return – one can only presume he checked if there were any seagulls following his vessel as the ship left port – as the ringmaster of the caged contest that saw the likes of Figo, Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos taking on Javier Saviola, Fredrik Ljungberg and Luis Enrique – one always felt sorry for a young Tomas Rosicky who was joined on team Tutto Bene by Fabio Cannavaro and Rio Ferdinand. I think we all know who was being leaned on to provide a moment of magic in that side.  We should also spare a moment for Seol Ki-Hyeon, formerly of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Fulham who played on a side with Denilson and Ronaldinho and, as a result, barely made his face into the advert. We had to look up the team lists to work out who was the mythical third party in team Funk Soul Brothers.

Football adverts even once tried to reclaim the beautiful game back for the fans as Nike launched their Joga Bonito YouTube station and advert campaign. Here, Cantona and a bunch of football guerrilla cameramen, producers and lighting technicians took over television studios in order to broadcast their idealistic football message to the world as they looked to reclaim it back from the divers, cheats and money men who had turned our beloved game into a bitter world where conmen and cheats thrived – who knew that the freelancers of these worlds were so willing to be involved in such bold and extreme broadcast tactics to advertise both this message and their work.

Joga Bonito, though, was the last football advertising campaign that captivated both fans of the sport and those who just happened to catch the advert during breaks of American Idol or Coronation Street. Few discussed in the same way, the Point of View advert that implied that the viewer was a player progressing through the ranks of the game taking on Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ronaldinho and Cristiano Ronaldo before finally earning a spot in the Dutch national side and lining up a free-kick from the edge of the area before a cut to black.

The advert was nice, but it didn’t have you on the edge of your seat wondering what was coming next. It didn’t feel real, the tricks you saw players performing looked like – and most probably were – shot on green screen or used CGI footage. When Ronaldinho performed the ‘flip-flap’ trick before being scythed down by the referee in the ‘Brazil v Portugal’ advert it was real and we all went and tried it out down the park or in the school playground the next day.  The modern day adverts just don’t cut it and it’s a real loss after we were given so many years – and hours on YouTube - of riveting television advertisements.

Football fans genuinely miss these dazzling masterpieces of advertising genius and it’s high time Nike, Adidas or someone else produced another.

Imagine the scene.

The Maracana in the modern era. 

Out steps a team of young stars of the modern game. Jack Wilshere, Neymar, Messi etc are lined up for a pre-season charity game when suddenly from the touchline a voice is overheard saying, “These youngsters don’t have the same drive as we did back in our day.”

It’s Davids and he’s talking to Pep who nods his head in agreement. There’s a scornful look from Messi and Neymar as the two Barca players laugh off the ‘old men’s’ comments before exclaiming that “Who guys couldn’t beat us in your prime, let alone now.”

From nowhere steps Henry, Totti, Denilson, Ronaldo (R9 not CR7) Maldini and some of the elder statesmen of the Nike adverts from the past. A quick camera twirl and suddenly the old guard are in kit and lined up against the young guns. The fans are off their seats in the stadium…….this is going to be one hell of a show.  The play kicks off (Collina is the referee of course) and both sides take it in turn to dazzle the other with tricks and flicks. Magical passing, flying free-kicks, and thunderous volleys are combined with crunching, but fair, challenges and incredible saves.  This is all-star football.

The teams go into extra time and still can’t be separated after 120 minutes. The tone of the match has turned from heated competition - with both sides desperate to show that they’re the kings of the castle - to fun respectful entertainment with the two sides putting their competitive edge’s aside to just enjoy and revere what the other is capable of producing.

As the teams discuss who is going to take the penalties there’s a whistle off screen. The camera pans to the stadium tunnel where stood, holding a ball, is Cantona with a host of iconic legends from the 80’s and 70’s with him. He call’s out, “Winner stays on no?” causing both Messi and Henry to look at one another with a slightly fearful look before a wry smile creeps across their faces.

The screen flashes to black and the slogan ‘Respect the past. Play for the now. Grow for the future.’ flashes up before finishing with the Nike tick.

That, I pray, will be on my television screen in a month or so rather than the usual gambling, loans, injury lawyers and medical treatment adverts that plague the small screen day after day.

Please, someone, bring back the football advert.