You have a point, contemporary football is quite different from old times but I must say that there are still players that are focused on building their legacy like messi and Ronaldo but not on the same pace. In the history of football no one has beaten their record maybe due the reason is due to what you mentioned, a lack of passion and more interest in money. But do you think this is the case? Footballers don't really need to be obsessed or all about the money because however their career might be they are still going to get paid. Well, this is just my tought on this, they can be passionate about their career and still make money.
Like you said, which also was my initial opinion, there are definitely player that are playing with great passion to write their own legendary and make a name like the other old players. First, I believe that passion is what drives most of the player to start playing but money is another thing that could corrupt some of them which I believe all of those players can never be corrupted or have the same life style.