Lionel Messi has been offered a chance to overtake perennial rival Cristiano Ronaldo in the on-field earnings department thanks to “the most lucrative salary deal in the history of football,” which would have the former joining the latter in Saudi Arabia.
For the majority of his career, right up until he achieved GOAT status at the 2022 FIFA World Cup (Qatar), Messi’s accomplishments had been fairly comparable to that of Ronaldo.
Financially, however, CR7 recently managed to pull ahead after his departure from Manchester United; inking an eye-watering €200 million ($333 million) per season contract with the Saudi Pro League’s Al Nassr until the summer of 2025. But that may soon be dwarfed by a considerable margin…
Earlier this week, The Telegraph indicated the Argentinian football talent was cruising towards his own eye-watering Saudi Pro League contract valued at US$400 million (AU$600 million) annually.
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“Talks with Messi’s representatives, led by his father Jorge, are underway for when the player becomes a free agent at the end of June upon the expiration of his Paris Saint-Germain contract,” reports Sam Wallace, Jason Burt, Tom Morgan, and Mike McGrath of The Telegraph.
“The conventional process for signing the world’s top talent, as with Ronaldo in December, has been for deals to have state involvement before a final destination club is decided.”
“Ronaldo joined Al-Nassr, currently second in the league behind leaders Al-Ittihad. Al-Nassr’s traditional rivals are Al-Hilal and placing Messi with that club, historically the nation’s most successful, would recreate the rivalry the pair had for nine years with Real Madrid and Barcelona. Al-Hilal won the Asian Champions League equivalent in 2021, their fourth title in that competition.”
While this may all seem very pie-in-the-sky, similar to the earlier rumours regarding his potential transfer to Inter Miami and the aforementioned Al-Hilal, there’s certainly more credence this time around.
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Setting aside the fact that Lionel Messi has just been disciplined by his current club Paris Saint-Germain for an unsanctioned trip to Saudi Arabia – incurring a two-week suspension without pay for missing scheduled training sessions – and the fact that PSG has reportedly only offered him a one-year suspension, the man certainly appears to be flirting with the idea of playing against Cristiano Ronaldo out in the monied Kingdom; and the monied Kingdom is definitely courting Messi.
Last month, there was widespread speculation after he posted a sponsored post for #VisitSaudi on Instagram, and currently serves as a tourism ambassador for the country. The Saudi Tourism Authority later expressed in a press release that Messi had “… returned to Saudi for a second time, this time with his family,” having been treated to a demonstration of palm weaving and fed some Arabian gazelles.
And lest we forget that cash is king. This is a footballer who tearfully left his beloved FC Barcelona behind, a club he’d spent his entire storied career with prior to playing in Ligue 1, in great part because they couldn’t pony up for his salary demands. With a nine-figure carrot being dangled in his face, what’s to say he doesn’t follow the money yet again? Better question, with a nine-figure carrot being dangled in his face… how can anyone blame him?
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