does he signal the end of the 90s generation? is there any other famous or semi-famous outfield player who played on a senior national team before 2000 who is still playing for a club? i am not necessarily a totti fan but his farewell was pretty emotional and nostalgic for me, because i started following football in the late 90s, and grew up watching legends from the late 90s and early 2000s, which in my opinion was a better time for football than now. football has become too commercialized and monopolized these days. it is always real, barca, bayern, and juve, and they steamroll every other team, making their players overrated. messi and ronaldo stand out too much because of this. on a good day, robben is 2nd only to messi, but he is inconsistent and injury prone. football has gotten too defensive, tactical, and physical, and creativity has been stifled as a result. players care too much about money and memes.
Not an outfield player, but obviously there is Buffon. Less famous, but still playing is Seydou Keita. Technically he didn't play for Mali until 3 months after New Years' Eve 1999 but was playing for Marseille in 1999 who were a Champions League team that year. He was still with Roma last year of course, but now plays in the Qatari league.
this forum must be dead. i expected more responses. obviously, this was not just about tottis departure and whether there are any old generation players remaining. my main point in my initial post was about how football was in the 90s/early 2000s compared to today. any thoughts on that?