Rain of dollars and goals in the friendly embrace between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia

“Who Can, Can”convicted the Santa Fe cheerleader and legislator a few months ago Amalia Granata during a session in the Chamber of Deputies of his province. Guided by this logic, the Saudi authorities actwho don’t pay attention to the accounts when they propose something. In their peak season of sporting events, they’ve had the pleasure of coming face-to-face with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in Riyadh in a friendly between Paris Saint-Germain Y a team led by Marcelo Gallardo and made up of players from al hilal Y Al Nasrthe two most successful teams in that country’s league history (18 and 9 titles respectively), which the French team ended up winning 5-4 with an early goal from the Argentina national team captain.

Four days after the Spanish Super Cup final between Barcelona Y real Madrid in the stadium King Fahd (and from the end of the 2023 edition of the Dakar Rally) and a few hours later Inter will win the Italian Super Cup against Milan there, the Coliseum of the Saudi capital, with a capacity of 68,000 spectators, was once again the epicenter of the gaze of sports fans. For this to happen, it was necessary That country’s General Entertainment Authority will shell out €10m to bring PSG to Riyadh for a few hours.

The unique attraction of this event was the clash between Messi and CR7, the 37th between the two from the first one almost 15 years ago, on April 23, 2008, between Barcelona and Manchester United at the Camp Nou for one of the Champions League semi-finals (they drew 0-0). The two best footballers of the 21st century hadn’t faced each other for just over two years: on 8 December 2020, Juventus beat Barça 3-0 away with a brace from the Portuguese.

Statisticians will count in a few years that Messi opened the scoring after 3 minutes of action, after an assist by neymarand who left the field after 17 minutes from the start of the plugin, when Christopher Galtier retired seven of his 10 starters (he had already been kicked out John Bernat at the end of the first chapter for an infraction on Gonzalo Sin Martinez). marquinhos, Sergio Ramos, kylian mbappe Y Hugo Ekitike they scored the other goals for the winner and neymar missed a penalty

The chronicles will also tell this friendly marked Cristiano Ronaldo’s debut on Saudi soil. Although he signed the contract with Al-Nassr two weeks ago (200 million euros for two and a half years), he still hasn’t officially made his debut because he had to serve two suspension dates that he received when he was still player for Manchester Utd. Before his presentation in the Saudi championship, which will take place on Sunday against Al-Ettifaq, he dispatched, in 61 minutes of work, with two goals (one from a penalty after a punch from Keylor Navas that left traces on his face) and a couple of brushstrokes of his talent, which does not die out despite his 37 years.

The reports will also take into account the return to the court of Marcelo Gallardo, two months after closing his highly successful cycle in River. To the Doll He had to formally command a group of players he had met two days earlier in light training and with whom he had shared a party for his 47th birthday on Wednesday that he had organized Turki Al-Sheikh, Assessor to the Royal Court and Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority. His most colorful intervention was the embrace with Messi when Rosario’s man was replaced.

Regardless of what happened on the pitch, Thursday’s winners included the Saudi monarchy, a key US ally in the Middle East, who has been gifted with yet another mega sporting event. Several international organizations denounce that these shows have the exclusive purpose of giving a face to a state strongly questioned for the human rights violations that are committed in its territory.

Impervious to those questions, the kingdom’s authorities double the bet. In these hours the rumor has spread that at the end of this season, when his relationship with PSG ends, Messi could become a reinforcement for Al Halil, who would be willing to pay him 300 million euros a year. The idea is to put him together with CR7 in a championship that grows with the help of a wallet. The final station of this project would be to get the 2030 World Cup venue.

R.