The Premier League and English football will witness the end of an era with the close of this season as Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard - two of the outstanding and enduring figures of this generation - leave to join Major League Soccer with LA Galaxy and New York City FC.
For clubs and country, both were permanent fixtures in the nation's sporting psyche, Gerrard with Liverpool and Lampard with Chelsea - the latter's career bookended by his time at West Ham United and Manchester City.
They will leave huge spaces behind them, members of England's "Golden Generation" who may not have experienced fulfilment on the international stage but will never be forgotten for their deeds elsewhere.
So was one better than the other? Both will have their backers and like many debates involving the pair, will there ever be a definitive answer?
The journey to greatness
Chelsea celebrate winning the 2012 FA Cup final
Lampard was part of a squad consistently capable of challenging for the title
Liverpool and Chelsea supporters will make a concrete case for both players being the best - the one-club man who often dragged his team to success single-handed against the midfield maestro at the heart of a string of successes.
While Gerrard, who celebrates his 35th birthday on 30 May, was the constant in a string of Liverpool transitions, Lampard was part of the spine of a series of outstanding Chelsea sides.
Gerrard was Liverpool's iconic leader, the man the Kop looked to in times of stress to produce the moment that made the difference. It was a responsibility he carried with relish.
Lampard, 36, was equally important but, perhaps crucially, he was accompanied by Petr Cech in goal, Ashley Cole at left-back, John Terry as captain and Didier Drogba in attack. He was part of Chelsea's foundations whereas Gerrard was often Liverpool's only stable base.
Terry took the mantle of captain naturally, leaving Lampard to exert his talent elsewhere, but often Gerrard was left to do it all alone at Anfield. Few of Liverpool's recent successes would have happened without his influence.
Lampard had his struggles too, though, and had to show the character that would become his trademark when he suffered heavy criticism in his formative years at West Ham United. He made his debut in January 1996 but some fans were not convinced of his pedigree and believed he was benefiting from his father Frank's influence as a member of the backroom team.
It was only when he moved to Chelsea that he flourished, playing his part in winning the club's first title in 50 years in 2004-05 - scoring both goals in the win at Bolton that sealed the triumph.
Gerrard missed out on the Premier League, the one absence from his trophy cabinet, and will forever regret the slip against Chelsea that pushed the title away from their grasp in 2014, but he won the Champions League, Uefa Cup, the FA Cup twice and the League Cup on three occasions. A wonderful return.
Lampard is a three-time title winner, who won the FA Cup four times, the League Cup twice as well as the Champions League and Europa League.
They were achieved in different, less reduced circumstances to Gerrard, but that does not lessen their merit.
Gerrard was occasionally surrounded by greatness in the shape of Fernando Torres and Luis Suarez and was part of a stellar 2008-09 Liverpool midfield alongside Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso, anchored by the defensive rock of his great friend and fellow one-club man Jamie Carragher.
It will be against these two different contexts, though, that the respective partisan arguments about who was the best of the two will be framed.
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