The GOAT influence: Did Cristiano Ronaldo convince Tom Brady to make retirement U-turn?

Sport loves a hastily drawn conclusion, and one GOAT convincing another GOAT to spectacularly U-turn on the former's retirement plans after 40 days and a bedlam of speculation might just about be the best hastily drawn conclusion to date.

Here’s the timeline.

On Saturday evening, 44-year-old NFL quarterback and larger-than-life sporting superstar Tom Brady watched 37-year-old and fellow icon Cristiano Ronaldo score a game-winning hat trick to send Manchester United past Tottenham Hotspur 3-2 in the Premier League.

In the process, Ronaldo became FIFA’s all-time record goal-scorer in competitive matches, providing a friendly reminder to the sporting world that any whisper of him ‘being done’ was reckless hearsay.

Some 24 hours later, Tom Brady had gone full circle and come out of retirement.

Perhaps it was the hoots and hollers of another GOAT trilling in Brady’s ears at Old Trafford that goaded the seven-time Super Bowl winner to reconsider his retirement. As the Portuguese striker broke another football record, the NFL’s serial record-breaker saw himself manifested in the otherworldly exploits, peckish for that familiar thrill again.

Or perhaps the pair’s conversation in the middle of a colossal but empty Old Trafford served as a timely reminder to both Brady and Ronaldo that being an elite performer is not a simple hobby to shelve. It is a mulish addiction. .

Then, maybe we are reading too much into this otherwise fabulous coincidence. Saturday evening was just GOATs talking about GOAT things.

Tom Brady had made his decision to return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ pocket well before his arrival in Manchester, perhaps in the microseconds after his initial decision to hang up the boots or perhaps later, in the