Messi, Ronaldo to meet in Miami-Al Nassr friendly in February،
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are expected to meet on the pitch when MLS club Inter Miami CF take on Saudi club Al Nassr in the Riyadh Season Cup friendly, scheduled for February 2024 in Riyadh.
Event organizers confirmed “The Last Dance” event via social media at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh without having exact dates yet.
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The three-team tournament will be completed by Neymar’s Al Hilal, but the Brazil international is unlikely to feature after tearing an ACL last month.
“The enthusiasm and global interest that we hope this tournament will generate extends to one of our main aspirations for the Riyadh season: to create international events that visitors to Riyadh and fans from around the world can all enjoy. enjoy,” said Turki Alalshikh, president of the organization. Saudi General Entertainment Authority.
Saudi Arabia has made a major push to become a major player in world football by recruiting some of the sport’s greatest players. But that couldn’t lure Messi to the oil-rich kingdom when he left Paris Saint-Germain at the end of last season, with the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner choosing to move to MLS instead.
The last time the two La Liga rivals faced each other was in this tournament on January 19, 2023, in Riyadh.
Messi featured in last season’s Riyadh Season Cup with PSG and also faced Ronaldo following the Portuguese great’s surprise move to Al Nassr. PSG won the match 5-4.
In May, Messi was fined and suspended by the French club for making an unauthorized trip to Saudi Arabia.
Messi, who led Argentina to triumph at last year’s World Cup, has already won his first trophy with David Beckham’s co-ownership Miami: the Leagues Cup in August.
Messi and Ronaldo are widely considered two of the greatest players of all time and competed for football’s biggest prizes during their early years at Barcelona and Real Madrid, respectively.
Both have left European football behind them, but have shown no signs of abandoning their ambition to contribute to their legacy.
Ronaldo led Portugal to next year’s European Championship and Messi will aim to retain the Copa América for Argentina at next year’s tournament.
Sadio Mané also joined Al Nassr as part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to attract more stars in the face of sportswashing allegations.
As Neymar recovers from surgery, Al Hilal should still have Aleksandar Mitrovic and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic in their lineup.
The Riyadh Season Cup is scheduled to take place in the first week of February at the Kingdom Arena. The schedule has not been announced, but the three teams will play in a round-robin format.
Inter Miami sporting director Chris Henderson said Monday that nothing has been finalized or ready to be announced regarding the team’s preseason plans.
Training will resume during the second week of January, with the expectation that the MLS season will begin in late February. Henderson said he thought the team would need four to six preseason games, split between the United States and overseas.
The club had planned to play two matches in China earlier this month, but the trip – which could have sold more than 100,000 tickets – fell through due to logistical reasons.
Inter Miami did not undertake any international tours in its first three seasons; having Messi in 4th year changed everything.
“I really felt like overnight we became a global club,” Henderson said on Monday. “The eyes of the whole world are watching what we do. And that comes with these tours and the pre-season opportunities that we have as a club. So we are working closely with the front office as they negotiate some of these pre-season tours.”
