Because Messi played just 13 minutes in Al Nassr’s tough win against Inter Miami in Saudi Arabia

Fate didn’t want it to be there The Last Dance between Lionel Messi AND Cristiano Ronaldo. And that “last dance”as the friendly match was promoted to the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh between InterMiami AND Al NassrI ended up being a huge dance of the Arab team that beat the Americans 6-0 with the Portuguese smiling from a penalty area recovering from an injury and with Leo coming off the bench to play the final minutes. What happened to the man from Rosario who wasn’t a starter?

A few moments after the start of the match it was confirmed that the Argentine world champion was also unable to face the match of Riad seasonIn Saudi Arabia. Injury, rest or load management? Apparently, a bit of all the options: the captain of the Argentine national team entered the field seven minutes from time for the Ecuadorian Leonardo Campana and with the score already under 0-6! There was nothing he could do to change the license plate. He was beaten by the Arabs.

What happened before the friendly at Kingdom Arena was strange. There was a first publication from the official Inter Miami account in which Messi wasn’t even on the bench. And this surprised everyone.

A few minutes later, that flyer was modified and the surname Rosario – replaced in ownership by the Ecuadorian Campana – was placed in last place. The specific thing is that Messi did not appear in the starting eleven. Until this Thursday, his minutes had increased in the first three games of preparation for the start of MLS play on February 21 against Real Salt Lake at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale.

Against the El Salvador national team (0-0 draw) he played the entire first half, against Dallas FC (1-0 defeat) he did so for 65 minutes and against Al Hilal, last Monday, where he scored the his first goal of the season in the 3-4 fall was on the pitch for 84 minutes. In that last match he had just come out at his express request and as he passed Martino he whispered something in his ear.

The Argentine 10 heard something. Without Inter’s official medical report, given that there is no injury, it would all be a question of things muscle disorder. Leo underwent medical evaluations and for this reason they preferred to preserve him. The strange thing was seeing him enter a match completely liquidated to be present for 13 minutes (seven of regular time and six added), which becomes very complicated not to link it to a mere respect for the commercial agreement for said match.

The audience, of course, exploded when they saw him enter. He had already done it every time his face appeared on the big screen and when he went out to warm up in the second half. And the “Meeeessi, Meeeessi!”he thundered as he entered the field.

At that point everything was doomed to fail. A hat-trick from the Brazilian Talisca (one from a penalty), Otavio, Laporte and Maran were the authors of the goals for Al Nassr, who never took their foot off the accelerator in a duel that at times became very contentious.

Inter Miami’s tour, which has not yet won in the preseason, still includes two stops in Asia: next Sunday against the Hong Kong national team and on Wednesday the 7th in Japan against Vissel Kobe. Will Leo return to the starting lineup?