Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo recently commented on his 2015-16 season calling it, "the best season of my life." Ronaldo made his comments at the unveiling of his new five-star hotel in his hometown of Funchal. 

And why not? No one can argue that this was not his most successful season from a team perspective, and even as an individual, his past season is one any player in any sport would kill for.

2016 started with Ronaldo being nominated for the Ballon d'Or, although he lost to Leo Messi, he was still recognized as one of the three best players in the world. Real Madrid also came within a razonr's edge of mounting a most improbable comeback from 13 points down in the La Liga table, only to fall one point short on the final match day.

Then of course, there's the trophies Ronaldo did win, the Champions League (the 11th in Madrid's history) and the European Championship with Portugal. Not to mention 51 goals scored in all competitions last campaign.

However 2015-16 ended in injury for Ronaldo, and in a tax evasion conviction for his supposed rival, Messi. Ronaldo is due to miss all of Real Madrid's preseason, and Messi faces up to 48 months in prison; which begs the question, how would each team fare without their superstars?

Real Madrid

It has been seven years since Ronaldo came over for a world record transfer fee and began terrorizing Spanish goal keepers, therefore it's hard to remember life without him. Throughout those seven years he has stayed healthy, without any prolonged spells on the trainer's table. 

Therefore it's hard to imagine what Madrid would be like should he not recover in time for the regular season. However being who they are, Real Madrid have a stable of stars to fill in. Gareth Bale is surely able to carry the load as we saw towards the end of last season when Ronaldo missed consecutive matches with a knee injury. And don't forget that Alvaro Morata is back, improved and confident after tearing through Serie A with Juventus.

Barcelona

In Catalonia there could be more questions. Losing the sharpest tip of their MSN attacking trident, it would be interesting to see how Neymar would handle increased responsibility. Suarez knows how to carry an attack from his days in Liverpool, but Neymar has never had to be THE guy outside of Brazil. 

Off the bench Luis Enrique doesn't have the options that Zinedine Zidane has either. No Lucas Vasquez, James, Isco or Morata. We saw last season, Enrique had to trot out the same lineup for weeks on end, and it resulted in a supremely fatigued side that almost lost out on multiple trophies.

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